Using four areas for method development, Bundesgesellschaft für Endlagerung (BGE) (the Federal Company for Radioactive Waste Disposal) will develop a comparable and robust way of using the representative, provisional safety assessments. Some people in the regions do not fully understand why the four areas already announced have been selected. This is why BGE has now presented four fact sheets about the areas for method development and they describe the reasons for precisely selecting each of the four areas.

A classic salt dome

“We’re well aware that any regional information initially attracts a great deal of attention in such a long and complex selection process for a disposal site for high-level radioactive waste,” says Steffen Kanitz. He is a managing director at BGE and is responsible for the search for a disposal site. “We’re not using the areas for method development to make any statement about their potential suitability in the site selection procedure. These areas simply give us the opportunity to develop our methods in a practical and robust manner.”

The Bahlburg salt dome (sub-area 035_00TG_057_00IG_S_s_z) has been selected as one of 60 salt structures to develop methods, because it is a very typical sub-area for rock salt as a host rock with steeply inclined deposits. It can exemplify the shape, area and scope of rock salt sub-areas with steeply inclined deposits. “The Bahlburg salt dome has been selected as a structure so that the methods can be transferred to other salt structures,” is the wording in the fact sheet. The data available is not particularly good or particularly bad and is therefore typical of many salt domes.”

The fact sheet for the Bahlburg salt dome.

Typical salt deposits

The make-up of Zechstein rock layers with several, horizontal deposits of rock salt sequences in the Werra, Stassfurt, Leine and Aller formations can be found in the Thuringian Basin (sub-area 078_02TG_197_02IG_S_f_z). This sub-area is therefore very suitable for developing the methods for the representative, provisional safety assessments. The data available from this large sub-area is very varied and this provides the opportunity of methodically understanding a mixed data situation – i.e. how BGE copes with having plenty of data available in some parts because of raw material exploration and very little in other parts of a sub-area.

The fact sheet for the Thuringian Basin

Looking at crystalline as a host rock

Saxothuringikum (sub-area 009_00TG_194_00IG_K_g_SO) covers a large area and stretches from Baden-Württemberg as far as Saxony. The data available here is very heterogeneous too. Different origin dates for the bedrock unveil diverse crystalline host rocks. The area provides various test cases for methodical considerations, which can help develop a method for all the sub-areas.

The fact sheet for Saxothuringikum

From opalinus clay to the enormous clay sub-areas

Sub-area 001_00TG_032_01IG_T_f_jmOPT (opalinus clay) is smaller in size than the other clay sub-areas. The host rock features in the opalinus clay formations can be derived from the well-studied, similar opalinus clay situated to the south. The area also reveals how to manage different amounts of available data, because there are only a few drill holes here. The opportunity of developing a method, which can be transferred to other clay sub-areas, is therefore high in this sub-area.

The fact sheet for opalinus clay

About BGE

BGE is a publicly owned company operating under the umbrella of the Federal Environment Ministry. BGE took over the responsibility of operating the Asse II mine and the Konrad and Morsleben disposal sites from the Federal Office of Radiation Protection on 25 April 2017. Its other tasks include searching for a disposal site for the high-level radioactive waste produced in Germany on the basis of the Site Selection Act, which became law in May 2017. The managing directors are Stefan Studt (Chairperson), Steffen Kanitz (Deputy Chairperson), Beate Kallenbach-Herbert (Commercial Manager) and Dr Thomas Lautsch (Technical Manager).

The press office at Bundesgesellschaft für Endlagerung mbH can answer any questions related to this news item.