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Repository on the German side: nuclear waste in Morsleben
Photo: Jens Wolf/dpa
The Federal Ministry for the Environment has described Switzerland's decision to build a nuclear waste repository directly on the border with Germany as a burden for the affected communities.
The location of the planned site near the border near the Baden-Württemberg town of Hohentengen on the High Rhine "represents a great burden both in the construction phase and in the operation of the repository for this and surrounding communities," said Christian Kühn, Parliamentary State Secretary in the Federal Ministry for the Environment and member of the Bundestag from Baden-Württemberg. Württemberg of the dpa.
"I am working with Switzerland to ensure that the existing good integration of the German neighbors is continued." At the same time, Kühn emphasized that it was "right and important" for the geology to be the decisive criterion for the selection of a repository site.
In Germany, the decision for a separate repository site for highly radioactive nuclear waste will be made in 2031 at the earliest.
The spokesman for the Swiss National Cooperative for the Disposal of Radioactive Waste (Nagra), Patrick Studer, had previously announced that the country wanted to build its repository a few kilometers from the German municipality of Hohentengen.
There, the waste is to be embedded in Opalinus Clay at a depth of several hundred meters.
There were two other locations to choose from, which are also very close to the German border.
lmd/dpa
