The German government and the state of Lower Saxony have categorically rejected European Commission plans for a Europe-wide permanent storage site for atomic waste.

In a newspaper report published on Friday, the European Commission is quoted as saying that Germany’s deep storage dump near the small farming community of Gorleben in Lower Saxony would lend itself well to also absorbing high level atomic waste from other European Union member countries.

Atomic waste disposal touchy issue in Germany

In a report released in early November this year, the EU however points out that Gorleben (photo) - a huge underground salt dome that Germany has been using for the storage of its own reprocessed nuclear waste - "cannot be used at present for political reasons".

The statement underlines the sensitivity of the nuclear waste disposal issue in Germany which has seen massive demonstrations (photo) and protests for years from environmental activists who point to scientific concerns about the adequacy and safety of the dumps including the one at Gorleben.

Germany’s ruling coalition of Social Democrats and the ecologist Greens have also decided to phase out the country’s nuclear energy program and with it close down all nuclear plants step by step.

No European nation has yet established a workable permanent storage site for high level atomic waste and Germany is among the very few which has an interim storage policy in place.

Germans against idea of waste exchange

It’s against this background that the idea of letting waste from other EU countries into Germany is now being categorically rejected by the German Greens-dominated environment ministry.

Michael Schrören, spokesman for German Environmental Minister Jürgen Trittin (photo) told reporters in Berlin on Friday that the EU plans would by no means receive any support from the government.

"The German government", he says, " has repeatedly declared that it will stick to the principle of national nuclear waste disposal and this principle works both ways, on the one hand we would not even think of exporting our waste to other countries and certainly we don’t want to be responsible for the other countries’ waste and let them use our dumps here."

Schrören argues that the German government’s position cannot really be attacked by the European Commission because it’s in line with international agreements already signed. "Our stance on the matter is valid and will remain so."

Schrören said that this summer a relevant agreement came into force that’s in keeping with the recommendations of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

"It clearly stipulates that nuclear waste has to be dumped in the country where it is produced. And I don’t see why this reasonable approach should be changed."

European Commission wants things to get moving

Lower Saxony’s Environment Minister Wolfgang Jüttner has criticized the EU recommendations and said that the EU with this quick solution to the storage problem wants to give atomic energy "a perspective while Germany wants to phase it out".

The Germans have also strongly criticized the EU’s apparent lack of concern on the question of safety of atomic plants and disposal.

The EU however feels that a harmonization is first necessary in view of the different safety standards existing all over Europe. For instance, certain nuclear reactors operated in France would not be allowed to function in Germany under the law.

The European Commission also thinks it’s necessary to get moving on the problem of disposal of highly radioactive waste from nuclear plants because several countries don’t have any permanent dumping sites in the works.

The commission also feels that above ground temporary storage facilities would represent ideal targets for terrorists and should hence be gradually removed.

EU turns on the pressure on member countries

Those concerns have now prompted the EU to step up the pressure on European member nations.

In a draft paper on nuclear waste storage, the European Commission aims to force national governments to allow for deep geological storage repositories by 2008 which must be operational by 2018 at the latest. Storage sites for less active radioactive waste must be operational by 2013.

But this proposal too has come in for considerable flak from the Germans. German plans foresee a final permanent site for highly radioactive waste only by 2030 and the examination of the suitability of the Gorleben salt dome is expected to come to an end by 2010.

At present a committee set up in 1999 is looking for alternatives to Gorleben and a final resting place for Germany’s atomic waste.

German Environmental Minister Jürgen Trittin is now expected to bring up the issue during next Monday’s meeting with his European counterparts.