70,000 signatures were submitted to the Federal Ministry for the Environment in 2015, and 29 municipalities adopted the region's appeal in 2016:
To stop the expansion of the Konrad mine into a repository for low- and intermediate-level radioactive waste, as it does not meet current scientific and technical standards and important aspects such as retrievability and long-term safety have not been taken into account or have not been considered at all!
Why a new appeal now?
The answer is obvious:
The work at Schacht Konrad continues unperturbed, a transparent and scientifically based search for a site has not been initiated; on the contrary, further facts are being created with the unchecked expansion and the appeal seems to have faded away.
Reason enough to reiterate the demands made in 2015.
Especially as the planning approval decision from 2002, which provides the legal basis for the expansion of the repository, is nowhere near as legally binding as was long assumed.
With a view to "environmental protection" and "intergenerational justice", environmental associations have now also been granted the right to sue.
BUND and NABU, supported by the Salzgitter against Konrad alliance, then filed an application to revoke or withdraw the planning approval decision from 2002 and submitted it to the then Environment Minister Olaf Lies on May 21, 2021. A decision has not yet been made.
With the 2022 appeal, 30 regional authorities in the region are not only renewing their demand for a reassessment of the "Schacht Konrad repository", which they have been calling for since 2015, but are also appealing to the state government to process the environmental associations' application transparently and swiftly and to make a decision after almost two years!
Mayor Frank Klingebiel emphasizes: "The renewed support of my fellow mayors shows the unity of the region and stands for a voice that deserves to be heard and taken seriously. Neither for me nor for our supporters is it about not having a repository on our own doorstep, but about providing proof of long-term safety before commissioning instead of ignorantly simply creating more facts."
An assessment shared by many of his colleagues.
Mayor Dr. Kornblum explains why Braunschweig is supporting the appeal: "Our region is already heavily burdened by the Asse nuclear waste repository. In our appeal, we are therefore jointly calling for the site selection procedure for high-level nuclear waste to be extended to include all low- and intermediate-level radioactive waste. We consider it necessary for the Environment Minister to implement the announcements made in the coalition agreement as quickly as possible and to enter into talks with our region together with the Federal Environment Minister."
"The search for a nuclear waste repository is primarily about safety, which must have top priority. If this requirement is not met, there is no basis for a scientific and fact-based decision. As things stand today, the Konrad mine does not meet these criteria. In this respect, it is incomprehensible to press ahead with plans for a final repository. As the City of Wolfsburg, we therefore support the 'Appeal of the Region'," said Lord Mayor Dennis Weilmann
"The planning approval decision dates back to 2002, but the world has moved on in the last 21 years. We also owe it to future generations in the Braunschweig region to critically scrutinize the decision made back then," demands District Administrator Gerhard Radeck.
Petra Wassmann, Konrad representative of NABU Lower Saxony, adds: "Schacht Konrad stands for the whole of Germany in terms of responsibility for nuclear waste disposal: we need a comparative (!) site selection procedure for low and intermediate-level radioactive waste too."
"The red-green state government has promised that the search for a final storage site will be based on the latest scientific and technical knowledge and that the retrievability option must be guaranteed. As a consequence, this can only lead to the revocation of the planning approval decision that we have demanded. We are calling on the state to decide on our application promptly and to stop the construction measures," confirmed BUND state chairwoman Susanne Gerstner.
And lawyer Ulrich Wollenteit clarifies: "The planning approval decision for the Schacht Konrad repository must be withdrawn. There is a lack of comprehensive proof of long-term safety according to the state of the art in science and technology. The deficits we have pointed out are incurable. The Ministry must therefore take action".
The mayor of the joint municipality of Hankensbüttel, Henning Evers, has also taken a clear position: "The unanimous decision of the council of the joint municipality of Hankensbüttel, as well as my personal conviction, leave no other conclusion than to sign the region's appeal against the Konrad mine. From the "far north" of the region, I stand in solidarity with the city of Salzgitter and thus with Mayor Klingebiel, who, on behalf of an entire region, is quite rightly calling for a transparent and speedy procedure for the search for a storage site."
