Beverungen (dpa / lnw) – During a visit to Beverungen in the Höxter district, North Rhine-Westphalia’s Labor Minister Karl-Josef Laumann (CDU) asked the federal government to answer open questions about the planned Würgassen supply camp for the Konrad repository in Lower Saxony. As early as August, the states of Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia presented a study commissioned by TÜV Nord, according to which the need for the supply storage facility on the site of the former Würgassen nuclear power plant could not be justified. The supply storage facility is not necessary for the efficient storage of low-level and intermediate-level radioactive substances in the final storage facility.
“The Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection (BMUV) has not yet proven the necessity. Our study shows that the Konrad repository can be filled with and without a storage facility. In both variants, the duration of the filling depends heavily on organizational issues that have not yet been clarified,” said Laumann at a press conference following talks with representatives of a citizens’ initiative and politicians on Friday. As Minister for Occupational Health and Safety, Laumanns is also responsible for radiation protection permits.
“The most important currency in politics is trust. And transparency creates trust. Therefore, in the end we will only be able to find the best possible solution if all the facts are presented transparently,” said the minister. According to earlier information from the Federal Agency for Interim Storage (BGZ), which is responsible for planning, it was never a question of whether the logistics center would be indispensable overall, but rather the speed of storage.
