On. The ah how its interim story signed in germany is months to land region houses 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 use the problem is there is no such place. If we believe in a completely safe final storage site weve seen even ourselves. And so weve taken on too much else for that weve taken on too much with this selfinflicted problems. But. Its the start of the shift in the our house Nuclear Waste repository the power of all time and its what place like and enough. God my work is fun to get on well with my colleagues they do a great job i do a great job i feel safe here with the seans are. Told the 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 whole 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. Open 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. Thirty 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 causes a fair 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 as its all going up towards another potential scenario is the crash of a large passenger plane and 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 sites and fossil means things like terrorist proofing and other scenarios were going to just an r. V. In. 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. Produced in addition to central sites such as our house call laban and the been 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 gang 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 all the many concrete risks of interim storage are neglected. Area. The sensation of other thoughts 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 was 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 thought of the flood they missed the national went to the end of 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 it 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 were 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 sea. 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. Does is typical 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 foreign attire on to ignore the well 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 Television was most those voices didnt prevail because its. And now the waste is then. Technology philosophy. 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 insult 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 its a million years is an inconceivable time span 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 was said that ive talked to here are formations that remain stable for hundreds of thousands to millions of years. By contrast we humans and di activities are mused snapshots of the pyramids of giza have been standing for four and a half thousand years. The cave drawings of lets go. You have survived for as much as seventeen thousand years. Homo sapien n. Z. Modern humans evolved in africa has recently is two hundred thousand years ago and now homo sap is 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. All being told her they. Love nor. My. Goal a been in lower saxony in nine hundred seventy seven the government decided to build a final repository for highly Radioactive Nuclear waste here in an old salt dome one point six billion euros were spent on exploration there were vehemently protests from the outset and not only about the permanent way step by the demonstrators were against Nuclear Power per se. Most recent transport of radioactive waste to go away but took place in november twenty eighth eleven 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 kearney his federal agencies responsible for finding a final reponse to tree the disc of 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 how 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. Lashing the thing if the safe place that we should take the responsibility to store it here i guess yeah i think its good. Creates lots or. Think its 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. Most hummer and and to go laban 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 up there which means that the understanding of the perception and for that matter the good will of the new in the streets of course much bigger here that compared to many other places and i think you are a lot of people feel quite proud of the fact that but youre participating in the pioneering process. To test homes are currently being drilled at the site of the future depo if environmental officials in the Parliament Give the green light and construction will begin in twenty twenty two. Project to 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 want to destroy the industry and of course at the end of the road there was a threat or whatever in order to be successful with this very difficult program they want they had to make sure that. But to have a good cooperation with the municipalities. The industry the man means the swedish final repository operator s k b its employee in the north home has been responsible for Public Relations and osama for many years. Now i am stuck in. 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 is been around for many years the final repository for highly radioactive waste will probably look similar one day. Being an old home and her colleagues have set up an exhibition down here its to explain the swedish concept to visitors and alleviate fears of the final repose of trade. Transparency and openness thats the operators strategy. Knowledge we have except there is also we have five system and that is space 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 sixty years we will push it all to come and ray shuts the door so we push for a solution that. Not everyone sees it that way. There are skeptics in sweden too. Weve got one of them is johann sun the head of an environmental organization. He believes his fellow swedes are too laid back about the final riposte trick question. What we are putting on the future generations the risks by by by doing a. Trolltech that we will not work it is frustrating that that that so much effort has to be done to fight the project in this sense but even the environmentalists are fundamentally opposed to storing Nuclear Waste underground there are more guards now since their most recent visit the entrance to the future fund storage site resembles a prison gate. I think you will that you will reach clear through the you know castro saying you want me to come by the people again to. Gain from everywhere love to feel 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 are going to horribles muscle the idea in sweden is to put it in a copper canisters and then down into the bedrock. And the problem appears to be that the copper will be destroyed much faster than intended so instead of being safe for one hundred thousand years it may break down only after a couple of hundred years of my liking or just there will be a referendum in hama in february twenty eighth and residents could still change their minds about the final repository project pantheons 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 of critical oversight of the final repository project. Very important but in sweden two the greatest dangers are above ground Nuclear Waste storage is all about risk tradeoffs. Ask us ham 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 riposte a tree safety is being conducted on the outskirts of town four hundred and forty nine meters below ground in the esper hard rock in a bar a tree the 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 responsible for Public Relations and geologist olga musk and scalia admit that theyre still experimenting. Sometimes when you do it for here you see that fieri impact these arent the same thing from the mistakes you learn to do do with the right way so making mistakes is important. And care no finding them. 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 one thousand two hundred years it will be closed forever it wont be marked 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 want to get anywhere because thats thats thats what how much do you know would say half its feet maybe something happens tomorrow maybe next year we wait to meet until then lets think here. But thats not the solution 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 as k. B. Only wants to reveal its results after all the permit. Have been approved is that transparency. In germany things are progressing more slowly at least theres a plan for searching for the final repast tree now. It officially starts with a blank map but experts already know that such a final repository can only be built insult clay or granite salt dimas many exist in northern germany. Play can also be found in the north as well as in the region around 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 that is negated 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 routing of 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 quality other routes will seem increasingly attractive such as the one that for me is the question of the cheap route namely disposing of this way. In a country other than germany. Got into the water. 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 carls 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 repository folke immense 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 cask 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 it. Wasnt of occupy long before deciding it on flex to size even though we think of it as a bad sign of containers corroding and water is approaching the wasteful and 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 expand the scientists in karlsruhe or 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 are meyer is an expert in this scenario. It will inevitably occur sooner or later in our final report a tree for the thermos and its the movement what. Do the radionuclides dissolve in the water allowing them to be transported quickly during the experiment a greenish sediment appears in the test tube can we get we can compare the colors if we look at the precipitant id say is 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 always depends on the society in question for me its like this if we stay below the risk potential that nature gives us then thats a very good concept and. So what save enough is certainly a good question but the actual question is shouldnt we at least move to a state that is safer than the one we have now so when the small. Inside say yes. So the Nuclear Waste should go underground into granite rocks for example geochemist tossin schaefer and his team are examining this type of rock granite is very hard but craggy if it is to house a final repose a tree the containers need an extra wall with the claim of cheerio bentonite for example like in sweden it swells when it comes into contact with water. That here. In the show on into 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 but in the simulation only a small portion of the radionuclides managed to escape from a funnel riposte a tree thats good news for the client the federal government will like hearing these results but this is whats making some people suspicious. Ideas a positive in porch off most we have to look at all these positive messages in detail do they really help us find a solution to the problem rather than just small interesting effects that can be interpreted either way. This kind of 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 it does put them us 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. Appart and his colleagues are working on long term safety analyses for finally really a repository of. Research commissioned by the government designed to produce many encouraging results apple vehemently rejects that challenge. Was. Sure no 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 and charts and fish and shellfish ok all. The geologist believes that the science is advanced enough that we can Start Building final storage sites. You. The Computer Program viewer to us 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. If. The end of the lifetime of an interim storage site i have to move the spent fuel elements i can 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 and that means the problem becomes more and more urgent the longer it persists and over. Cast or Nuclear Waste cask is safe for forty years experts say when scientists like Klaus Fischer appled urges to hurry 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 the game expects agree that a final repository 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 of a big Natural Disaster strikes that at that point the final storage issue wont be the priority anymore itll be in last place i. Trust that. 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 assoc to mind their voice and boudreau this is where the mistakes of germanys Nuclear Waste policy are most. Marked and by stuart and his colleague to be as how many are responsible for site safety. The wasting cage takes them to the first working level of a salt mine. More than one hundred years old. The mine is dilapidated the shafts 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 night he died 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 the roofs of these mining chambers are around five to six meters thick and this pressure from the rock causes the hollow spaces to be compressed at the same time these mining levels bulge in the end they will crack due to the defamation but its not a pretty picture shot and. 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. This interview that is going up and. These are the images that have become etched in peoples minds the digger letting the bowels drop its symbolic of how not to do final storage and it was said for a long time that everything was safe the population was left in that belief and 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 if 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 metres every day. To the best 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 say that we wont be able to control the system and at. The water isnt contaminated with radioactivity here the water further down. The price of the Safety Measures one hundred Million Euros per year. Is in cost to send of this money comes one hundred percent from taxpayers that means were all paying for the sins of the past. In the knowledge that individual Companies Made a fair bit of money creating this waste we thought it was good for. 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 assa mine be closed off forever keeping it open or closing it forever that question but also arrives for a future final repose a tree. Some specialists insist that. The final story 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. If our wire guards and 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 berlin is 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 ramsdell five of us have it out 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 what an ordinary german can understand it and thats just one thousand five hundred years ago but what if three thousand years have gone by assessment i toss 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 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 repose of 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 to cool. Archaeologist cornelius hold off from Lunar 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 because the biggest challenge is to conceive of the time periods were talking about as an archaeologist i have some insight into ancient Human History if we think about how old homo sapien says then were talking in two hundred thousand years roughly form of a if we think a million years into the future we cant even assume that homo sapien ends as a species will still be dominant on earth as an archaeologist cornelius hold off is used to approaching history by looking back that gives him 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 in the study of. 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 fourth of. 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 its to that. 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 to a 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 image and thats why we need politicians and scientists who will take on this problem head on and take responsibility. 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. Since im. Its an incredible experiment hopefully itll succeed by one. Why. Fancy a trip. Then come to Congress Take switzerland. This Mountain Village go back inside and for just. The outfits the outdoor sports. And the down since just as they were. Twenty. Thirty d w. Its all about the moments before. Its all about the stories inside. Its all about George Chance to discover the world from different perspectives. Join us in being sponsored by distinctive instagram or years at g. W. Story the topic each week on instagram. And i think one day this war will be considered cruel and unjust war where it should and certainly all citizens of ukraine every man woman and child the only friend their homeland is the enemy invades. No one wants russia here which is the. Rebel against global news that matters. D. W. Made for mines. The c. W. News live from catalonia as Parliament Postpones a vote as to form a new government but sets the stage for a standoff with madrid catalan lawmakers say exile leader carlos bruce tomorrow is the only viable candidate for president but he faces arrest if you returns to spain well go live to barcelona also coming up a major breakthrough in the months long wait for a new German Government negotiators hammer out a deal on a key Sticking Point reunification of Refugee Families in germany
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