Biblis/Wiesbaden (dpa/lhe) – The energy supplier RWE has welcomed the planned disposal obligation of the Büttelborn landfill for demolition material from the Biblis nuclear power plant. “We would like to use our disposal routes in accordance with the legal framework,” said a company spokesman on Friday in Biblis in southern Hesse. This is crucial for the successful dismantling of the plant.
The Darmstadt regional council and the Hessian Ministry of the Environment jointly announced on Wednesday that the landfill in the Groß-Gerau district had to accept parts of the construction waste and had initiated a corresponding hearing procedure.
According to RWE, around 1.35 percent of the waste estimated at a total of one million tons is to be disposed of in Büttelborn. The spokesman said that it was primarily concrete waste for which radiation-specific approval was necessary. Around 66 percent of the waste has nothing to do with the actual power plant and can be disposed of as building rubble or recycled.
For another 32 percent there is an “unrestricted release”. Only 0.65 percent is considered radioactive waste. This will be temporarily stored on site. “Nuclear waste does not leave our plant – this is about conventional waste materials,” said the spokesman.
For years the search for a suitable landfill was a problem. According to earlier information from the Ministry of the Environment, none of the more than 200 landfills requested nationwide had declared themselves ready for disposal. After Germany’s nuclear phase-out in the wake of the Fukushima disaster in 2011, the Biblis power plant was also shut down shortly thereafter. The facility has been demolished since 2017.