Aha interim storage sign in germanys minster langridge in more than three hundred costs of highly Radioactive Nuclear waste the search is on for a permanent storage site that will be safe for a million years the problem is there is no such place. If we believe in a completely safe final storage sides with saving ourselves. Harm once weve taken on too much weve taken on too much with this selfinflicted problems often blame. But. Its the start of the shift in the our house Nuclear Waste repository for power of all to man its what place like any off go at my work is fun i get on well with michael. Leagues they do a great job i do a great job i feel safe here with the seans are. Followed a man is a crane driver in hole eight he operates the overhead crane that can carry a load of one hundred forty tons. Our radioactive legacy is stored in the eastern half of the hall three hundred and twenty nine casks filled with spent nuclear fuel. Among other things they contain plutonium and other trans uranium elements all radioactive some for millions of years seventy five percent of the german population believe this radioactive waste is already stored underground but it will be a long time before that happens. Site manager Marcus Werder and his colleagues here are the custodians of an elaborate provisional solution. That will not. Be in the central warehouses almost two hundred meters long and twenty meters high. Physicist Jacqueline Bartoli checks the measurements every day theyre lower than the typical dose rates on an average day in the center of munich eighty eight nine zero zero its power. The city thats very low the casks are in the storage area over there on the other side is industrial waste you can feel safe here. That cause these in here few of. These casks are considered the most stable waste receptacles in Human History unless we dont know whether theyre seals will hold for more than forty years but theyre associated with other dangers that dont originate in the warehouse. Our house is considered a potential terrorist target important aspects of the safeguarding and protection concepts are kept confidential the only thing we do know is that the facility has to be constantly updated and fixed gutters for jet fuel are going to be built here soon lets get on going up whats the potential scenario is the crash of a large passenger plane we have to make sure that we dont have a long lasting kerosene fire in the depo so will channel the kerosene out of the depo to shorten the time of a fire inside of a course and. Another measure has been conceived to make the interim depo safer. An additional protective wall is to be erected around the building the maoists to the wall is aimed at dealing with newer threat scenarios and insights from federal and safety authorities regarding the impact of third parties on the storage site and possible means things like terrorist proofing and other scenarios were going to test the navi and. The operating permit for the interim Storage Facility runs out in twenty thirty six its already clear that it will have to be extended thats because nobody knows where to store the waste long term. Radioactive waste is stored in different interim depos depending on the level of radioactivity. And the heat produced in addition to central sites such as our house call aban and movement there are further interim storage sites used by industry and Research Facilities and on the grounds of Nuclear Power plants. The term interim storage may sound harmless but its actually incredibly dangerous says volved going leave out a security and risk expert at the university of Natural Resources in vienna. He surprised by how reluctant germany is to choose a final storage site of the many concrete risks of interim storage on neglected. Areas. The sensation of as it whats this interim storage situation really needs to be just that interim its not a solution everyone knows that something brewing above ground that really shouldnt be there like fortunately nothing has happened yet but it could and if it does the waste would be unprotected and out there in the atmosphere we have to get it below ground quickly the stuff they saw in the midst of those went to the end the clean this is for this club. Nuclear waste isnt safe today it probably never has been but for a long time that issue didnt receive much attention the first Nuclear Power station was connected to the grid in russia in the mid one nine hundred fifty s. Today scientists are horrified by how casually the spent radioactive fuel was handled in the past. Germany has had Nuclear Power since one nine hundred sixty one. The first minister for Nuclear Issues fanciers of strauss laid the groundwork for the optimism typical of his day. Yet only of Nuclear Energy can lead humanity into a new better age will be another golden one if we can master the demon that is Nuclear Power. The demon mainly referred to the spent nuclear fuel where should it go should it be discarded in the antarctic or shot into space with rockets both suggestions came to nothing too expensive and also too dangerous. A third approach has been implemented by several countries dumping Nuclear Waste in the se. In one thousand nine hundred two greenpeace activists tried to stop the crew of a russian tanker from doing just that but to no avail to this day countless containers with radioactive waste lie on the bottom of the ocean. Plus is that he said because of how we dealt with technology in the Twentieth Century we saw the positive sides progress Growth Energy all buzzwords that drive things forward but we ignore the downside for a time on to ignore the un but there were only a few voices early on saying you know this is a big problem that we need to solve now was as poppy a must for food dish was most those voices didnt prevail because its. And now the waste is then. Technology philosopher. Is one of the people charged with coming up with a concrete and objective answer to the question where should it go definitely underground thats the consensus among scientists around the world locked up in salt clay or granite the goal is to found a final storage site by twenty thirty one. Storage should then begin in twenty fifty the decisive criterion is that the Nuclear Waste be stored safely for a million years. I mean yeah its a million years isnt inconceivable timespan for people technological managerial measures cant really county safety for such a long period but geology can help because it deals with such timeframes and it could be said that i talked to there are formations that remain stable for hundreds of thousands to millions of years. By contrast we humans and our activities are muse snapshots of the pyramids of giza have been standing for four and a half thousand years. The cave drawings of lets go. Have survived for as much as seventeen thousand years. Homo sapien n. Z. Modern human evolved in africa is recent years two hundred thousand years ago and now homo sapien as wants to build something that will last a million years. Or is that just the number invented by politicians to loveless Nuclear Power in its radioactive legacy is a politically explosive issue in germany. Lol lol lol gerd. Gave me. The whole bird. My. Goal a bone in lower saxony in one hundred seventy seven the government decided to build a final repository for highly Radioactive Nuclear waste here in an old salt dime one point six billion euros was spent on exploration there were vehement protests from the outset and not only about the permanent way step by the demonstrators were against Nuclear Power plants saying. Most recent transport of radioactive waste to go away but it took place in november twentieth leavened in the same year the federal government had decided to phase out Nuclear Power. In twenty thirteen the year in which the repository Site Selection act was adopted exploration was halted the old bogeyman or a thing of the past says Green Party Politician koenig his federal agency is responsible for finding a final reponse to tree leaders because the debate about final storage the possibilities and limitations and also the impossibilities was always shaped by whether you were for or against Nuclear Energy that central question has been solved by policy makers the decision to get out of Nuclear Power. Has been clearly taken the task at hand now is solving the problem that exists we cant just close our eyes and say were not interested its here that. The situation in sweden is different sweden is even holding a competition about who will be allowed to solve the Nuclear Waste problem two towns fought to become final repositories the municipality of. Two hours north of stockholm is now supposed to receive all of swedens Nuclear Waste. This is where the final repository will be built below a forest near the baltic coast the depth of five hundred metres. Whats incredible from a german perspective is that the population of osama is anxious to see construction begin. Clashing thing if the safe place that we should take the responsibility to store it here i am here i think its good. Creates lots or. I think its a good for the Community House prices will go up. Im really positive that were to be do we we have we have these things to take care of and we have to do it somewhere. Post hama and and to go all a bit of the far north the mayor doesnt want to go into that he has a simple explanation for the residents attitude. We are a new Care Community we have the new. Power plant plant the site out there which means that the understanding and the perception and for dark matter the good will of the new pier in the streets of course much bigger here that compared to many other places where i think you are a lot of people feel quite proud of the fact that what youre participating in the pioneering process. To test holes are currently being drilled at the signs of the future depo if environmental officials in the Parliament Give the green light and construction will begin in twenty twenty two. The project will create up to seven hundred jobs in addition the men negotiated a bonus of one hundred fifty Million Euros for the town. You may say that we were clever enough to to to decide that we we wanted this from the industry and of course at the end of the road there was a threat or whatever you know order to be successful with this very difficult program they want they had to make sure that. They have a good cooperation with the municipalities. The industry the man means the swedish final report which we operate to s. K. Be exemplary in going on home has been responsible for Public Relations in osama for many years. Now and its not something. The exact location of the repository is kept secret sweden has also become cautious a trip to the storage site for low and intermediate level radioactive waste its been around for many years the final repository for highly radioactive waste will probably look similar one day. Think youre not home and her colleagues have set up an exhibition down here its to explain the swedish concept of visitors and alleviate fears of the final repose of trick. Transparency and openness thats the operator strategy. They have knowledge we have except there is also we have fire system and that is very important for us but also it would take a long time to create all this if we are talking about the facility which will be open for iran sixteen years we will push it all to coming up for a shots but also we will push for a solution for that. Not everyone sees it that way. There are skeptics in sweden too. And the only. One of them is your one son the head of an environmental organization. He believes his fellow swedes are too laid back about the final reponse trick question. What we are putting all the future generations of the risks by by by going up told jack that we will not work it is frustrating that that that so much effort has to be done to the science of the project in the service but even the environmentalist some fundamentally opposed to storing Nuclear Waste on the ground there are more guards now since their most recent visit the entrance to the future final storage site resembles a prison gate. And. I think you will that you will each clear if you are in a castle yesterday you want to come by the vehicle again. If we were allowed to film of the towers. The construction. Site is located on an island its almost impossible to see what happens there good protection from terrorists but also from critics in bush hama harbor these two are planning the next step of their educational campaign. Plots like the horrible snuffle the idea in sweden is to put it in copper canisters and then down into the bedrock. And the problem appears to be that the copper well be destroyed much faster than intended so instead of being face four hundred thousand years it may break down only after a couple of hundred years as a man but i just know there will be a referendum in hama in february twenty eighth seems residents could still change their minds about the final repository project but johanns land knows the likelihood of that is low people in sweden have a high trust of of government of of politicians but especially of the government agencies. And f k b is perceived as being something part of the government and therefore that its easier for them to have trust. Critical over size of the final repository project is very important but in sweden to the greatest dangers are above ground Nuclear Waste storage is all about risk tradeoffs. Ask us harm this town also applied to be the site of the final repository thats right applied but the granite here turned out to be less stable than that of its rival applicant thats why i asked hama won the bid nevertheless further research on final report the tree safety is being conducted on the outskirts of town four hundred and forty nine meters below ground in the s. P. L. Hardrock laboratory. S k b company runs a test lab here one of the things it studies is the clay that would be used to envelop the Nuclear Waste casks. If a has a responsible for Public Relations and geologist olga musk and scalia admit that theyre still experimenting. Sometimes when you do it for a year you see that theory in practice arent the same thing from the mistakes you learn to do do with the right way so making mistakes is important. And hare not finding that. Trial and error thats the principle Nuclear Waste disposal escapee has been using for the past forty years to find the best storage method. This film was intended to explain the concept to visitors if you will elements are to be enclosed in copper containers. Deep down in the granite special machines then lower the containers into the bore holes then the holes are filled with special bentonite clay nature the entire system of tunnels is gradually filled to when the storage site is full after eighty to one hundred years it will be closed forever it wont be mocked its supposed to be forgotten the swedes say that theyve done enough research to get moving after all new insights will always come along. Just waiting for for a bit to take me wont take us anywhere because thats thats thats what cowards do you know its a fact that feet maybe something happens tomorrow maybe next year well wait this week until then lets think here. Thats not the situation that is just. Not doing anything. The swedish approach also has risks water is already entering the granite via cracks the operator is performing a long term experiment to find out what that will mean for the Nuclear Waste containers but s k b only wants to reveal its results after all the permit. Ive been approved is that transparency. In germany things are progressing more slowly at least theres a plan for searching for the final riposte tree now. It officially starts with a blank map but experts already know that such a final repast tree can only be built insult clay or granite salt domes may exist in northern germany. Clay can also be found in the north as well as in the region around corn and like constance. Granite is found in eastern bavaria and in saxony geological formations such as salt domes have grown over millions of years the layers of rock above are safety barriers that would prevent a release of the radioactive waste even if there were major changes to the surface. So much can happen in a million years there was a time when the alps grew by five millimeters a year so in theory a Mountain Range with a height of five thousand meters could grow up during that period all that could be a new ice age those are uncertainties we have to live with if we want to get our Nuclear Waste below ground. Going to continue to hear. Well never have one hundred percent safety at a given time because our knowledge will progress but in my view theres no alternative to this route my worry is the longer we wait the more we run the risk that the politicians will find it less and less attractive to take responsibility other routes will seem increasingly attractive such as the one that for me is out of the question the cheap route namely disposing of this way. In a country other than germany. That has been out of the question so far according to the principle that the polluter should pay Nuclear Waste has to be disposed of its country of origin decades of research have gone into how Nuclear Waste can be stored in the safest possible manner in germany at the institute for Nuclear Waste disposal in colors were for example unfortunately german scientists were long seen as willing accessories to the nuclear industry. Was a moment the feeling that exists in many places right now is distrust. People dont really know what to believe anymore and the scientists have a hard time regaining that trust with the kind of statements they make so i think itll be a while before we get back to a place of mutual trust. And. Trust thats something the scientists hope to get by doing well founded research and by being transparent about their results they want to find out what dangers are caused by water infiltrating into a final riposte a tree. Falcon mets works with highly radioactive plutonium. The dangerous material is stored in shielded boxes and is only moved with the help of robotic arms the chemist is testing how radioactive substances inside a car ask react when they come into contact with water rusting casks deep in the ground up to now thats been a horror scenario but the tests have delivered surprising results. There is much to suggest that rust on the final repository container binds and even holds back the dangerous radio nuclides. Long poured on flesh to size even though we think of it as a bad sign of containers corroding and water is approaching the wasteful it turns out that this corrosion process can provide protective factors and is not necessarily simply a disaster there are other interactions here that were looking at in this experiment with an experiment the scientists in karlsruhe are simulate the ways in which radioactivity from a final depo could enter the environment. The first step is to determine what happens to radioactive substances that leak from their container and come into contact with water. Chemist marcus meyer is an expert in this scenario. It will inevitably occur sooner or later in our final report a tree for the thermos and the movement will. Do the radionuclides dissolve in the water allowing them to be transported quickly during the experiment a greenish sediment appears in the test tube the can we get we can compare the colors if we look at the precipitant id say its definitely plutonium for you. That indicates that the water only takes up a small amount of the plutonium a significant amount remains in the final repository as a precipitate meaning it wont reach the surface. Most guys remains cautious regardless he too says well never have one hundred percent safety but how safe is safe enough to fire against its a difficult question to answer that always depends on the society in question for me is like this if we stay below the risk potential that nature gives us then thats a very good concept. So whats safe enough is certainly a good question but the actual question is shouldnt we at least move to a state the safer than the one we have now in the small. So the Nuclear Waste should go underground into granite rocks for example geochemist toss and schaefer and his team are examining this type of rock granite is very hard but craggy if it is to house a final repository the containers need an extra wall with the clay material bentonite for example like in sweden it swells when it comes into contact with water. In the seanad were looking at how this bentonite swells to fill the open space maybe to the extent that it becomes completely sealed off. Cracks in the rock could be sealed up this way radioactively contaminated water would be sealed in in the simulation only a small portion of the radionuclides managed to escape from a funnel reports a tree thats good news that the client the federal government will like hearing these results but this is whats making some people suspicious. I would use a positive in porch off we have to look at all these positive messages in detail do they really help us find a solution to the problem rather just small interesting effects that can be interpreted either way. This country feel we have to be really concrete about what they mean so we dont run the risk of having all this night in distracting science that doesnt provide a relevant solution to the problem but us poppea was better than most. Nice science whats also nice for politicians is that they dont have to decide anything as long as the scientists are still researching calculating and testing Klaus Fischer operative and his colleagues are working on long term safety analyses for final nuclear repositories. Research commissioned by the government designed to produce many encouraging results vehemently rejects that challenge. Was heard should know were not trying to make anything look good or wed lose our legitimacy if we did that we can all make things look good but i dont think that scientifically acceptable. We should sleep through this and shift. All. The geologist believes that the science is advanced enough that we can Start Building final storage sites. The Computer Program v. H. S. Will soon allow scientists to conduct safety tests in a virtual final repository class for apple knows that the longer we search for the perfect side the more critical the temporary storage above ground will become. Again as the end of the lifetime of an interim storage site i have to move the spent fuel elements i cant leave it in the car six research has been done into the changes that this fuel will undergo over those periods of time lets just say the situation in the car six doesnt improve with age that means the problem becomes more and more urgent the longer it persists for kind of a. Cast or a Nuclear Waste cask is safe for forty years experts say when scientists like Klaus Fischer appled urges to hari environmental organizations and citizens initiatives listen with mistrust but the situation today is different from fifty years ago the advantages and disadvantages of different kinds of host rock have been studied around the world again experts agree that a final report a tree under good geological conditions provides a high degree of safety due to its depth and that we should take advantage of that as long as we still can get them off and alls we always assume that our society will continue to develop the way it has done for the past hundred hundred fifty years but what if a big Natural Disaster strikes at that point the final storage issue wont be the priority anymore itll be in last place. Many experts believe the time is ripe and yet decades will pass in germany before a final repository can start operating. Why thats the case becomes very obvious here at the asset. To my never from but this is where the mistakes of germanys Nuclear Waste policy almost. Mark and i still its and his colleague to be as hammond responsible for sight safety. Wasting page takes them to the first working level of a salt mine thats more than one hundred years old. The mine is dilapidated the shops were widens to such an extent that they became unstable. At a depth of four hundred ninety meters the geophysicists measure how the rock is moving centimeter by centimeter. Waves are visible to the naked eye that the ground is bulging dangerously thats my new years eve what you can see here under this line is pressure from the rock on the southern flank of the roofs of these mining chambers around five to six meters thick and this pressure from the rock causes the whole of spaces to be compressed at the same time these mining levels biology in the end they will crack you to the defamation and its not a pretty picture shot its with. Nevertheless Nuclear Waste has been stored here since the late one nine hundred sixty s. A total of one hundred twenty six thousand containers with low level and intermediate level radioactive waste. Is in the bill that is going up and. These are the images that have become etched in peoples minds the digger letting the barrels drop its symbolic of how not to do final storage and it was said for a long time that everything was safe for the population was left in that belief. The authorities involved acted that way as well then suddenly when the issue of closing this mine came up we were told how dangerous it was and that there was only a short time left that doesnt exactly nurture trust it did exactly the opposite and were still dealing with that today toward. The miners main job consists of stabilizing the salt domes as best they can so that one day in the distant future the radioactive waste can be recovered water is getting in through cracks in the rock the liquid is being collected at a depth of six hundred fifty eight meters and then pumped away. Eleven and a half cubic meters every day. To divest thats what this side of the water inflow is one of the big challenges we face here we cant rule out an emergency before the final cask is recovered meaning so much water will get into the site that we wont be able to control the system and. The water isnt contaminated with radioactivity here the water further down is that the price of the Safety Measures one hundred Million Euros per year. Is in cost to knuckles and of course this money comes one hundred percent from taxpayers that means were all paying for the sins of the past and paying. Recently in the knowledge that individual Companies Made a fair bit of money creating this waste that it will get put into. The chambers with the radioactive waste are deep in the ground covered over by concrete experts fear conditions down there may be catastrophic thats. Why the German Parliament decided in twenty thirty to retrieve the waste but without knowing whether that retrieval was technically feasible the governments advisory body on radiation safety is now recommending that the us and mine be closed off forever keeping it open or closing it forever that question but also arrives for a future final reponse adric. Some specialists insist that a final storage site should remain accessible so that emergency measures can be taken if needed. The majority of experts disagree however they say the danger that the wrong people can get access is too great after all the final repository would contain substances that could be used for weapons and guarding the waste all the time is impossible they say. Why are guards in concrete cant replace geological barriers in the long term in my view below ground we need the security of these geological barriers because that gives us a whole new option namely that we can finally forget about the Waste Society will forget about this waste. Forget about the waste that could be risky people in the distant future could accidentally open this pandoras box and be exposed to the radiation how can we best warn them. Christian touch a linguist from berlins Technical University is looking into that he puts himself in the shoes of a person who in many thousands of years time sees a sign reading warning Nuclear Waste in a lush rammstein fired by a savage at in the worst Case Scenario they neither know that its a message nor that its meant for them or anyone at all and they dont understand what it means if we look at old german i can read it because im a german linguistics expert and only because ive been trained to read it for an ordinary german can understand it and thats just one thousand five hundred years ago but what if three thousand years have gone by us and potatoes and out of gallons and. Thats why in the one nine hundred eighty s. A french italian team researched alternative ways of conveying information. They suggested breeding genetically modified cats whose fare lights up when its exposed to radioactivity. Special nuclear flowers could also warn people in a more sustainable manner than writing with symbols. Information has never been deliberately passed on and understood across such a long time period. But never before did humans have such a great responsibility to subsequent generations the challenge of creating final reponse to trees is huge its probably the most complex Infrastructure Project in history and its a tough test for democracy what is really the right moment to begin it. Of knowledge keeps developing in science that means theyll always be progress in what we know final storage in a deep geological repository is one option of keeping the radionuclides away from the biosphere for a very long time as far as we know the other option would be to do nothing. Archaeologist Cornelius Holt all from lynn a university in sweden agrees that doing nothing is a bad idea even though we may have to admit to ourselves that the task at hand is actually too much for us. To go to also because the biggest challenge is to conceive of the time periods were talking about as an archaeologist i have some insight into an ancient Human History if we think about how old homo sapien says then were talking in two hundred thousand years roughly follow that if we think a million years into the future we can even assume that homo sapien ns as a species will still be dominant on earth as an archaeologist cornelius hoelterhoff is used to approaching history by looking back that gives you an unusual view Nuclear Waste is the cultural legacy of our bizarre era. Could us also consider its going to be reasons other than safety why we should preserve it or if were going to preserve it isnt there a whole different story to tell than just the one about the dangers of radioactive waste does not have. Nuclear waste is a remnant of our age one that we want to and have to preserve for the future it has that in common with cultural monuments although its the other way round here were not preserving it because we think its good we want to preserve it to protect ourselves from it as the for the shifts. The role of cultural monuments is to tell us about a different time if we see it that way then you clear waste is one of the most important sources for learning about the second half of the Twentieth Century and to the. Naivete and hubris could those be the characteristics future generations will ascribe to the science and society of the late Twentieth Century will the twenty First Century go down in history as the era in which a solution to the Nuclear Waste problem is found its uncertain but were going to have to try whether were for or against Nuclear Power is irrelevant now. He moves on the solution to this problem is something we wont get around. Regardless of all the questions and doubts we cant leave it up to our children and grandchildren that wouldnt just be cowardly it would be very risky as we often mention thats why we need politicians and scientists who will take on this problem head on and take responsibility and. The only way is to restore trust and develop awareness of our shared task and then to build a final resting place for Nuclear Waste as quickly as possible. As i. Its an incredible experiment hopefully itll succeed. Another. One. Byebye. The countdown is on for britains withdrawal from the european union. Looks sick. With. What our politicians doing about it. Our reporters are seeking answers in the head of the books. To break today. Some. Schools or feel really need to up to. Six flags to come to a third book and live with us in the home to say theyre going to sleep. In the bombed or isnt cool. To cold. Call them. Evil boulders with the side. Dishes or three people to help with the mind for really hookers who is looking for people to provide their food but. This is. Two nations and a moment under one flag a step towards deescalation as north and south korea under the same banner at next months Winter Olympics will also be sending a joint womens Ice Hockey Team if the International OlympicCommittee Approves also coming up. A blistering attack on the floor of the u. S. Senate u. S. President senator jeff flake it republican from arizona