New: English versions of “Gorleben Site Description, Parts 1 to 4” are now available, June 19, 2011 The reports now available in English contain data compilations and descriptions of the technical evaluations of the geoscientific exploration results from the surface and underground geological and geotechnical investigation of the Gorleben salt dome conducted until 2000. The investigation work at the Gorleben site was suspended (moratorium) as a consequence of the agreement reached on 14 June 2000 between the German government and the power supply industry. BGR published the results “Description of the Gorleben site” in three parts in German in the Geologische Jahrbuch (Schweizerbart'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung) as follows: Standortbeschreibung Gorleben 2007: Teil 1: Die Hydrogeologie des Deckgebirges des Salzstocks Gorleben The Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety instigated in March 2010 that the investigations should be restarted. The aim is to investigate whether the Gorleben salt dome is suitable for the construction of a geologic repository for heat-generating radioactive waste. In another step in the evaluation process, the existing exploration and research findings are to be used as the basis for a preliminary safety analysis and a subsequent international peer-review procedure (in which the scientific work that has been carried out is inspected and assessed by an independent expert) to determine whether a geologic repository can be constructed in the Gorleben salt dome. The English translations of the findings, in addition to the documentation, should also help to bring more objectivity into the controversially discussed public and political debate concerning the Gorleben site, and to open up the debate to international involvement: The Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources (BGR), as the German government’s central authority on geoscientific issues, works on the geoscientific aspects of the investigation of the Gorleben site as part of the geologic repository measures of the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Protection and Nuclear Safety (BMU) and the Federal Office for Radiation Protection (BfS). All of the investigation findings resulting from the surface and underground geological exploration activities are evaluated and published by BGR. |
