How Switzerland fuels the German repository debate

Berlin Switzerland’s decision to build a nuclear waste repository near the German border has reignited the debate about a German repository for high-level radioactive waste. The chairman of the Bundestag Committee for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection, Harald Ebner (Greens), told the Handelsblatt: “In my view, quick political shots are out of the question when it comes to such a safety-relevant challenge as the final storage of highly radioactive nuclear waste for tens of thousands of years.”

Ebner rejected an attempt by the FDP environmental politician Judith Skudelny. The member of the Bundestag had told the editorial network Germany (RND): “For example, a repository could also be built in southern Germany near the Swiss city of Schaffhausen near the border.”

Ebner referred to the ongoing search process, “which is clearly based on scientific criteria and not on current political assessments”. It is good that the search for a repository is in the hands of experts. “There must not be a second Gorleben.”