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Anti-nuclear movement grows, with Germany’s unsolved nuclear waste problem

The decision by Britain to send waste to Germany has served as a reminder that the Germans have not solved the problem of how and where to store it. This uncertainty, and news of the mine in Saxony, is stoking the embers of the anti-nuclear movement — demonstrations are planned for this weekend — and reviving it as a political force.

German nuclear programme threatened by old mine housing waste TIMESONLINE By BEN EVANS
Associated Press Writer Roger Boyes in Berlin January 22, 2010

A leaky salt mine used as a radioactive dump is jeopardising Germany’s plans to cling on to nuclear power despite fierce political opposition.

About 750m (2,500ft) below the surface, in the disused Asse mine in Lower Saxony, lie 126,000 containers of atomic waste — containers that are rusting. The canisters, said to contain low-grade radioactive waste from research reactors, were buried between 1967 and 1978.

Nuclear power stations also disposed of their waste in the mine and for political reasons the inventory was kept deliberately vague. It is believed that at least 100 tonnes of uranium is in the shaft, as well as 87 tonnes of thorium and 25kg of plutonium. Water is leaking into the chambers at a rate of 12,000 litres a day and geologists warn that the old mine could collapse…..

The discovery of the dilapidated conditions in Asse is a setback for the German Government, which is trying to extend the lifespan of power stations….The decision by Britain to send waste to Germany has served as a reminder that the Germans have not solved the problem of how and where to store it. This uncertainty, and news of the mine in Saxony, is stoking the embers of the anti-nuclear movement — demonstrations are planned for this weekend — and reviving it as a political force…http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article6997652.ece

January 22, 2010 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Germany, politics | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear secrecy, nuclear spin, nuclear wastes, radiation, radioactive