The report, published in Thursday's edition of the German daily Frankfurter Rundschau, shows that the Office for Radiation Protection recorded enormous costs for the excavation at the Gorleben salt mine during the 1980s.

Environmentalists in the area say this is proof enough that more was going on in Gorleben than the authorities admit to.

Illegal construction

At the time those costs were recorded, Gorleben had permits only to test the feasibility of turning the site into a nuclear waste dump. However, Kersten Ruedeck, who heads a German environmental organization, says that, by that time, work had already begun on the construction of a nuclear waste storage site.

“Our worst fears have come true. In Gorleben they weren't only testing, but had already started building the storage site years earlier,” she said.

Spark for environmentalists?

Gorleben is one of two nuclear waste storage sites in Germany. Shipments of waste to the site regularly spark angry protests, and those opposed to the use of nuclear energy in Germany are hoping that Thursday's allegations could lead to Gorleben being shut down.

This is something, says Ruedeck, that the organizations have been seeking for years. “The report confirms our position that Gorleben must be shut down as soon as possible. This must not be tolerated. It's illegal to begin construction without a permit and without official plans to do so - and then to lie to the public about it. Gorleben must be done away with,” she said.

Ruedeck and fellow environmentalists are now hoping that Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel will take swift action to close the site down.

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Editor: Susan Houlton