Less than 5% of German territory suitable for nuclear waste repository

Less than 5% of German territory is suitable to set up a final repository for the country's nuclear waste, experts responsible for finding a site said on Tuesday.

Germany aims to establish an underground repository by 2050 for some 27,000 cubic metres of highly radioactive nuclear waste produced by the country's nuclear power plants over more than 60 years.

Germany decided to exit nuclear power in 2011 under then chancellor Angela Merkel following the Fukushima nuclear disaster, and the last nuclear power plants were closed in April 2023.

Currently, the nuclear waste is kept in 16 interim storage facilities above ground across the country, but the plan is to establish an underground repository that can keep the hazardous materials safe for 1 million years.

Experts at the Federal Company for Radioactive Waste Disposal (BGE) have been evaluating German territory to find a suitable geological location for the storage facility.

To determine the suitability of an area, they review its geological makeup. Areas containing granite, salt and clay are considered as potentially suitable, with the underground site to be separated by a layer of rock of at least 300 metres.

Areas were the subsoil is damaged or at risk are considered unsuitable, ruling out former mining sites and regions were volcanoes have been active, as well as areas with a higher earthquake risk.

The German states of Rhineland-Palatinate, Hesse, Saxony and Saarland as well as the city-state of Berlin have been ruled out entirely as potential locations, the BGE said on Tuesday.

The agency is to present a final recommendation in 2027 on which regions to explore, with the lower house of parliament having the final say in the matter.