Joint press release by BUND and NABU and the
Salzgitter alliance against KONRAD mine
27.05.2021

The environmental associations are thus calling on the state to abandon the nuclear waste project and pave the way for a transparent and scientifically based search for a site. Due to the enormous environmental problems, the shaft is unsuitable as a nuclear waste repository. The environmentalists, together with the Salzgitter-based alliance against KONRAD mine, presented their petition to State Environment Minister Olaf Lies in person today.

"Our motion is the necessary consequence of the increasingly blatant contradictions between today's requirements for a deep geological repository for radioactive waste and the old Konrad project. Placing radioactive waste in an old iron ore mine without guaranteeing retrievability or reversibility and without precise knowledge of the geological conditions does not do justice to the responsibility for future generations," explain Heiner Baumgarten, Chairman of the BUND regional association, and Petra Wassmann, KONRAD representative of NABU Lower Saxony, together. They criticize the fact that even at the time of the planning approval decision, the project did not correspond to the state of the art in science and technology at the time. "Despite previous safety concerns from the state and federal environment ministers, the approval of Schacht Konrad was politically agreed with the energy companies in the nuclear consensus in June 2000. Unlike back then, we now have the right as recognized environmental associations to take legal action against the decision and, in view of the dangers that would emanate from the Konrad nuclear waste repository, it is even our duty to do so," said Baumgarten and Wassmann.

There is also no legal justification for commissioning. "The verdicts of the Lüneburg Higher Administrative Court dismissing the lawsuit do not prevent the withdrawal of the planning decision, which was unlawful from the outset. The prerequisites for the approval of the repository that were assumed in 2002 have also ceased to apply, meaning that the decision can be revoked," explain Michéle John and Ulrich Wollenteit, who are representing the environmental associations as lawyers. "The facility meets neither the current state of the art in science and technology nor the requirements for proving long-term safety. Without such proof, a repository may not be operated. The planning approval decision must therefore be withdrawn."

Frank Klingebiel (Mayor of the independent city of Salzgitter), Matthias Wilhelm (1st authorized representative of IG Metall Salzgitter-Peine), Hans Kasinger (Nds. Landvolk Braunschweiger Land e.V.) and Ludwig Wasmus (Chairman of the KONRAD Shaft Working Group) unanimously state: "The Salzgitter against KONRAD alliance has been calling for the abandonment of the completely outdated project for precisely these reasons for years." Ludwig Wasmus: "The application is an opportunity for Environment Minister Lies to finally do the right thing. Everyone knows that Konrad would no longer be approvable today. Nevertheless, it is being held on to just because there is a permit." Klingebiel adds: "As a local authority, we were completely denied the right to sue at the time. And the Federal Constitutional Court ruled that the private plaintiff had no right to "environmental protection" and was not allowed to sue on behalf of his descendants. But that also means that the long-term safety case has never been legally reviewed."

Klingebiel, Wilhelm, Kasinger and Wasmus conclude: "We are therefore delighted that BUND and NABU are now joining us on this path. The alliance is convinced that this will be a long and rocky road, but ultimately a successful one in the interests of the people living in Salzgitter and the region."