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Drowning German nuclear waste pit may poison groundwater
Diet Simon - 08.02.2007 00:35
Nuclear opponents say a former salt mine in north Germany containing 126,000 drums of nuclear waste is running full of water that could ultimately reach ground water along hundreds of kilometres. The dump is the Asse II pit near Salzgitter bought in the 60s by the federal government for “research of the safe final storage of radioactive wastes”.
The drums of weakly and medium-active waste, which the opponents claim includes 12.5 kilograms of plutonium, were deposited in the former mine over a period of 11 years.
“It is now running full of water and a disaster is taking shape,” says the Young Greens organisation in a call for a demonstration in Berlin on the 8th against a conference there of Deutsches Atomforum, the lobby group of the nuclear industry.
Some of the drums were stacked but most were simply tipped into a hole, the Young Greens write at  http://www.gruene-jugend.de/aktuelles/nachrichten/326586.html.
“For 19 years now the pit has slowly been filling with water. At the start it was ‘only’ two cubic metres a day, currently it’s 12 cubic metres.
“And some time or other it’s going to come out again.
“The operating company, GSF (Gesellschaft für Strahlenforschung) now wants to close the pit according to mining law because it’s a ‘research mine’.
“Mining law means the pit will simply be closed without watching the radioactive waste in future. That procedure will inevitably lead to catastrophe,” says the release.
“Moreover, the GSF plans to additionally ‘secure’ the waste by filling the shaft with a brine solution.
“That fluid will drastically increase the likelihood of radioactivity also getting into the groundwater.
“That has to be prevented! The minimum aim must be closure under atomic law!”
The Young Greens argue that even after the closure of the facility the shaft needed to be observed and measurements needed to be taken in and around it for very many years.
“Should a danger arise it has to remain possible to respond quickly and keep the damage as low as possible.”
Another possibility was to take the waste out of the pit again, says the release. “It’s possible and the possibility has to remain.”
“So what now?” says the group. “The problem has been recognised. The fault lies in Berlin because the GSF acts on behalf of the federal government.
“Research Minister (Annette) Schavan has to face up to the problem and Environment Minister (Sigmar) Gabriel must take Asse II into his portfolio.
“Otherwise the consequence will be radioactively contaminated groundwater, possibly all the way to Lüneburg [about 200 km, including the large city of Hanover].
“Moreover, Asse II is de facto the first final nuclear waste repository in the world. That such a catastrophe is shaping up here already should be a stark warning to us against atomic energy.
“Something has to be done and the atomic law procedures have to be used. Only then will it be established whether it’s safer to get the waste out or simply to store it safely.”
http://www.gruene-jugend.de/aktuelles/nachrichten/326586.html
Poster at http://www.nixatom.de/images/plakat.pdf
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