Germany’s hidden leaking nuclear waste dump

Just thirteen meters below me is radioactive

waste

that has been here for decades. This former salt mine contains more than one hundred thousand barrels of radioactive

waste

. And for more than thirty years the water has been pouring in. The shafts and chambers are unstable. And the waste should be removed as soon as possible. But despite decades of promises to clean up this

nuclear

disaster, not a single barrel has been removed. So how could this have happened? And what is Germany going to do about it? We are heading towards the center of the country, near the old border between West and East Germany.

This whole area has a lot of salt underground. People here lived from agriculture for centuries, until a large salt mine opened around 1900, transforming the area. Three wells were dug. Mining continued until 1964, when it became unprofitable. Around the same time, West Germany was looking for a place to store the radioactive waste that had begun to accumulate due to the growing

nuclear

industry. That's when all eyes fell on this particular salt mine. "In 600 meters turn left onto K513" We are conducting an exclusive tour of the site. Anna-Lena Zimmermann works for the mine operator and takes us underground. And we are ready! "Here's a dose meter.

Use it all the time." "So this measures radioactivity?" "If there was radioactivity, it would show up on the meter." This is our oxygen in case of emergency. It's not the best feeling having to be so prepared. Between 1967 and 1978, around 126,000 drums of medium and low level waste were transported to the Asse II mine shaft. Most of it is waste from nuclear reactors, such as filters or construction material. A small part is waste from medical and research facilities. But Asse also contains some uranium and plutonium. All waste was stored in 13 chambers marked here in red. And all this is still out there today.

Oh my god, it's so windy! "You probably feel pressure in your ears now. Just chew or swallow, that will make the pressure go away quickly." You can feel pressure in your ears. It's very hot, in fact! "We got here at the highest level: 490 meters." All waste was transported in this elevator. "Is this here all just salt?" "Yes, it's pure rock salt, the same one that's in your kitchen salt shaker." "But dirtier." "That seems really scary." For our first stop, we will get as close to the nuclear waste as possible. "This is the loading chamber. Loading simply means loading.

There was a crane here. Then came the waste. Then this shaft could be opened here. And all the barrels could be introduced one by one through this hole into the loading chamber. storage that is located directly below us." "Is it right below us?" "Exactly. Directly below us is probably the highest point of the cone." These barrels were normal metal and were not made to retain radiation. Many may have been damaged during transport and it is unclear how radioactive the inside of the chamber really is. "We are here 12, 13 or 14 meters above the waste and the dosimeter does not show any radioactivity." "Here you see 0.000 micro-Sievert.

This is because salt has a strong protective effect. Down here we are exposed to less radiation than up in the information center. There, you are exposed to cosmic radiation from space, radiation terrestrial From Earth, there are many devices up there. Radiation comes from everywhere, but here you are completely protected by salt." Salt also conducts heat well, meaning that hot radioactive waste can be cooled without significantly damaging the salt walls. On top of that, unlike rock, it can expand and flow, sealing and filling cavities on its own, making it difficult to permeate. So cool in theory. If only this not so small problem with water didn't exist.

Because the biggest problem that the Asse has is that there is a LOT of water that leaks into the tunnels. There are more than 500 leaks in the mine. The Asse, including the chambers with radioactive waste, could be filled with this water. To prevent this from happening, the BGE operator is picking it up. We headed to the main water collection point inside the mine. "Up there you can see stalactites on the ceiling. It's definitely wet up there. That's the liquid we're trapping in the storage tanks. What's coming out now is water that's completely saturated with salt. That means the water has a lot of salt in it." of rock. "Enter here from outside the mine.

What flows here into this basin is about 90 percent of the solution that enters the mine." The fact that so much water leaked should not have been a surprise. The other two mine shafts, Asse I and III, already They were flooded in 1906 and 1924 respectively and had to be closed. Today, they discharge about 12,000 liters of water every day. "This is water that is not contaminated, which means that the protection agency. radiological can exempt it and it can be transported to the surface." "What happens to the remaining 10 percent of the water?" "It arrives at other points in the mine.

Some of it ends up near the waste, which means that a small part of the water is also contaminated. At this point, it's not like this water can somehow reach the environment. But "We cannot guarantee that this will always be the case. That is why we have to eliminate waste." But water ingress is not the only problem. When the salt mine was operational, no one thought it would become a nuclear waste storage site. To maximize profits, many tunnels were dug close to each other. Safety precautions and support structures were kept to a minimum to extract as much salt as possible.

The pressure of the rock surrounding the salt constantly pushes against the mine and causes cracks. That's why it was necessary to fill more than 90 percent of the mine with salt and concrete to stabilize it. And also why more than 600 people work here to monitor and further secure the mine. The big question really is, how could this have happened? "Back then they also wanted to save money by reusing a mine." Frank Ehrlich heads the Asse information center. "The mine was closed in 1964. It was simply no longer worth it. That was when the government was looking for a facility.

They finally settled on the Asse II shaft, although the decision has always been controversial due to the geology, relatively old of the mine and the risk of leaks. The mine then cost 800,000 German marks, which today, adjusted for inflation, would be equivalent to about two million euros. Apparently a bargain. "Back then, did people know there could be problems?" "They could have known, but in the end they evaluated it differently. But the risks were already communicated back then." The growing nuclear sector quickly needed a landfill, so the risks were downplayed. The entire project was supposed to be a quick fix, with no thought to the long-term consequences.

At first, Asse was declared solely as a research storage facility, used only for medical and scientific waste. But in reality, almost all medium- and low-level waste from West Germany's nuclear reactors was

dump

ed here. At first, the waste piled up. But after a while, barrels were literally thrown into the mine to reduce radioactive exposure to truckers. Dump trucks also ran over the waste, damaging many of the barrels. Energy companies didn't pay anything to store their waste until 1975. And we don't even know exactly what kind of waste was

dump

ed. Because the documentation was very bad and vaguely done.

In 1988, the water begins to leak. Several mining shafts collapse. But the public does not learn the magnitude of the problem until almost ten years later. In 1997, the operator suggested closing the mine with all the waste inside. The plan does not mention anything about long-term safety and possible contamination. In 2008, news broke that the water had been coming into contact with radioactive waste for years. Puddles of contaminated water had accumulated just in front of the chambers that contained it and the operator had thrown it into the mine without permission. In 2010, ten times more intermediate nuclear waste is stored than previously estimated.

Years of political setbacks related to nuclear power spark protests across Germany. Finally, in 2013 the Lex Asse law was enacted. The government decides that the mine is too dangerous and the waste needs to be removed. And meanwhile, all the newly appointed responsible ministers have come and promised change. "The government just watched for 40 years." "It needs to come out immediately. And we have to do it and we want to do it." "That's why it's also a matter of political credibility that we address this seriously and openly." But not a single barrel has been recovered. "27...26...25...3...2...1... Thank you very much.

No contamination." Phew, happy about that! I know there's a lot of stabilization work going on down there, but to be honest, it's not the best feeling to be so close to nuclear waste. The problem is that a large elimination has never been done before. "The first thing we have to do is explore each of the 13 storage chambers to find out what the surrounding rock is like and what condition the waste is in." "Since many of the barrels are damaged, no human can enter the chambers. They have to be inspected by remotely controlled cameras like this one and recovered by remotely operated machines.

A new shaft must be built to transport the barrels." The mountain sets limits, and that is the challenge. The mine continues to deform. We have leaks that present some danger. And that is why we must be aware that time is running out. The worst case scenario would be a leak that would no longer be manageable, so we would have to close the mine and the radioactive waste would remain underground. Then, eventually, the radioactive material could come to the surface." And even if we ignore that terrifying scenario, all of this is going to cost A LOT of money.

Preparing for disposal alone will cost approximately €4.7 billion. And that doesn't mean including any part of the reclamation itself, which is scheduled to begin in 2033. The waste is supposed to be sorted in a temporary underground facility and then transported to... well, where exactly "What we need is a storage location?" for radioactive waste and we still do not have any final storage place where we can take the waste. That means we first have to store the waste temporarily. That is the topic that is causing a lot of debate right now. Here we have a land called "Kuhlager" and it is an open area here in the Asse mountain range, and we would like to establish a waste treatment facility and a temporary storage facility here.

That's our plan. But this location is controversial in this region." Because the Asse mine is not located in a very remote area. Just about 2 km to the south is the village of Remlingen-Semmenstedt, where a protest group co-founded by Heike is located. Wiegel. His protest sign is seen all over the area. And the group meets for official political visits: "There is supposed to be a new well and a new chimney. And these are considerable burdens, additional burdens for this region that would be added anyway." The mine operator has calculated the risks of reclamation. But, in Wiegel's opinion, they are deliberately underestimating the danger.

And an alternative site for intermediate storage No one knows how long the waste will remain in the region, as the search for a definitive storage site has not yet begun: "Germany is looking for a permanent storage site for highly radioactive nuclear waste. People say that if we ever find a place to store that, maybe later we can start looking for a place for Asse's waste somewhere nearby. It's quite macabre. If we know that nuclear waste is going to be recovered, then we should already be looking for it." Asse shows what happens when you put economic interests before security.

It is a symbol of a time when nuclear energy had to triumph, no matter what. And the long-term consequences of the new technology were largely downplayed or ignored. In the end, it is the German taxpayers, and not the companies or the government that caused it, who have to pay for this disaster. move the waste, that is. We can only hope that they can remove the nuclear waste in time, and that the worst case scenario does not happen. Did you know about this nuclear disaster? Subscribe, we publish videos like this every Friday.