As is known, the Federal Ministry for the Environment (BMU) has declared its intention to refrain from expanding the 303,000 cubic meter storage capacity of the Konrad mine on the occasion of the presentation of the National Waste Management Program (NaPro).

On the one hand, the action alliance "Stop Konrad - instead of expanding" (AG Schacht Konrad, IG Metall, Peiner Landvolk and the city of Salzgitter) welcomes this declaration of intent from Berlin. On the other hand, the chosen restrictive wording on the binding nature of this declaration ("Konrad will not be ruled out with final certainty") would once again feed doubt and uncertainty among the population in the region.

Around 70,000 people signed an objection to "Konrad" in the spring. These signatures, which also cast doubt on its general suitability, were handed over to the BMU by the campaign alliance in Berlin at the end of May 2015. Their demands go to the federal government, but also to the state government of Lower Saxony. According to the campaign group, the state government in particular is required to "finally and as quickly as possible carry out a concrete reassessment of Konrad".

A current short expert report on the state of science and technology of the planned Konrad repository has been published by the expert office Intac. One of the central statements of the report is "that an amendment to the planning approval decision would definitely be necessary for final disposal in Konrad."

The report concludes that the storage capacity of Konrad is not sufficient for all low- and medium-level radioactive waste produced in the Federal Republic of Germany. Furthermore, Konrad is not suitable for all low- and intermediate-level radioactive waste. According to the experts, this means that the repository concept pursued by the Federal Government to date, which consists of Konrad and the repository for heat-generating waste in particular, which is still to be found in accordance with the Site Selection Act, is not viable.

The following main administrative officials (some have sent representatives) took part in the event (as of 15.10.2015): Regine Körner (district of Goslar), Katrin Schneider(district of Peine), Detlef Loos (district of Gifhorn), Helfried Basse (district of Hildesheim), Knut Foraita (town of Wolfenbüttel), Maren Wegener (municipality of Lengede), Ralf Werner (municipality of Vechelde), Gerd Albrecht (municipality of Wendeburg), Alf Hesse (municipality of Liebenburg), Klaus Kubitschke (joint municipality of Baddeckenstedt), Marc Lohmann (joint municipality of Oderwald), Petra Eickmann-Riedel (municipality of Sickte), Bodo Mahns (joint municipality of Lutter am Barenberge), Frank Klingebiel (city of Salzgitter).

Furthermore, the members of the state parliament Stefan Klein, Marcus Bosse and Miriam Staudte as well as the member of the Bundestag Jutta Krellmann. Representatives of the
AG Schacht Konrad (Ursula Schönberger, Ludwig Wasmus, Antonia Uthe, Finja Löher), IG Metall (Wolfgang Räschke, Matthias Wilhelm) and the Peiner Landvolk (Ulrich Löhr).

The Konrad mine is a former iron ore mine located in the south-eastern part of Lower Saxony near Salzgitter-Bleckenstedt. After the two shafts were sunk between 1957 and 1962, the iron ore deposit formed around 150 million years ago was mined to a depth of between 900 meters and 1200 meters until 1976. Around 6.7 million tons of iron ore were extracted. The mine proved to be exceptionally dry, as clay and marlstone several hundred meters thick formed a natural barrier above the ore deposit.