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Place name sign for Gorleben: The location is not an option as a nuclear waste repository
Photo:
Philipp Schulze / dpa
For years it was quiet around the topic of nuclear waste, now the question of final disposal has returned to the political discussion with power.
The Federal Association for Final Storage (BGE) declared on Monday that Gorleben is not an option as a repository for highly radioactive nuclear waste - 90 other areas in Germany, however, in principle, are.
The BGE has designated a total of 54 percent of the state's area as so-called sub-areas, including large parts of northern Germany, Saxony, Thuringia, Baden-Württemberg - and Bavaria.
What does the selection mean for the procedure?
Three lessons.
1. Split tongue in Bavaria
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Markus Söder (CSU)
Photo: Sven Hoppe / dpa
In Munich, the state government has apparently decided on a dual strategy.
On the one hand, the free voters in the government coalition have been attacking the search for weeks.
"This process will cause unrest in Germany for decades and cost billions," said Bavarian Environment Minister Thorsten Glauber in mid-September to SPIEGEL.
"With Gorleben we already have a well-explored site for a safe and almost turnkey repository."
On Monday morning, the Deputy Prime Minister of Bavaria, Hubert Aiwanger (Free Voters), questioned the scientific nature of the search.
"I believe that in the end science will be exposed to political criteria again," said Aiwanger.
On the other hand, Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) today emphasized the social responsibility to find a nuclear waste repository.
"We will not make a total blockade," said Söder.
"We don't duck either."
Söder also sharply criticized the exclusion of Gorleben, but at the same time announced that he would like to contribute to the proceedings with reports from the Bavarian State Office for the Environment and "Bavarian universities".
Söder is continuing a long CSU tradition in the search for a repository, which is: protest loudly and then join in quietly.
As early as 2011, when the nationwide search for a repository was discussed for the first time, the then Prime Minister Horst Seehofer initially stood up against himself - the nationwide search came.
When the search criteria were adopted in 2016, Bavaria protested with a Sodervotum - only to approve the compromise in the Federal Council.
Söder's public appearance could also have had other ulterior motives.
If you want to recommend yourself as a candidate for chancellor of the Union for the federal election in 2021, you can hardly turn all other federal states against you with a gruff Bayern-First stance.
Especially since Söder, should he be elected, would be the Federal Chancellor, who would have to bring the results of the search for a repository phase one through the Bundestag and Bundesrat so that the process does not stand still.
2. The Greens are fighting for their compromise
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Robert Habeck (Greens)
Photo: Rüdiger Wölk / imago images / Rüdiger Wölk
The Greens are the party that has invested the most political capital in the search for a repository.
In 2011, Winfried Kretschmann, who was then Prime Minister of Baden-Württemberg, brought the nationwide search for a place for nuclear waste into play.
It is therefore no coincidence that the Greens chairman Robert Habeck has been promoting the process for days in guest articles and interviews.
Political considerations should not play a role, said Habeck on Monday in the ARD morning magazine.
"If the safest location according to understandable criteria is in my constituency, then I stand there and say: 'It's not nice, but as long as there are no better arguments why another location is better, it has to be here.'" He expects the same from all other politicians.
In addition to the Bavarians, that should also have been addressed to their own party friends.
A new state parliament will be elected in Baden-Württemberg in March 2021.
The repository sub-areas could become an election campaign topic.
Within the party, there is certainly concern that individual politicians will leave the final storage compromise in order to distinguish themselves in their constituencies.
The fact that Gorleben left the search so early should reinforce these tendencies.
3. The anti-nuclear power movement prevails
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Protest against Castor transport (archive picture)
Photo: Michael Probst / AP
If there is one big winner this Monday, it is the anti-nuclear movement.
"The ballast of history falls away," said the spokesman for the Lüchow-Dannenberg citizens' initiative, Wolfgang Ehmke.
Indeed, what the activists have fought for for four decades has occurred: Gorleben should not become a repository.
more on the subject
Searching for a nuclear waste repository: The One Million Years QuestionAn analysis by Susanne Götze
Icon: Interview with Spiegel Plus researchers: How do you find the best nuclear waste repository, Mr. Brunnengräber? An interview by Philipp Seibt
Shining legacy: what, how much and where with it - the German nuclear waste balance by Philipp Seibt
With this, the Federal Association for Final Storage is taking a big step towards the anti-nuclear activists.
Many of their associations had vehemently demanded Gorleben's departure in advance.
Otherwise the search is in danger.
The BGE even went a step further.
In her special report on Gorleben, she explicitly listed and discussed the arguments of the local citizens' initiative - a step that is actually not intended in the process at this point in time.
The criticism that Gorleben received special treatment should not be softened by this.
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