Published: Less than 20 min ago
A nearly 50-year-long search is over. Switzerland has found the place where it can store its nuclear waste.
But the people can still stop the plans in a local referendum.
It is called the “project of the century”, to find the right place and the right method for the final repository of spent nuclear fuel. Half a century has already passed since the search for the right location began, and now the optimal location has been found – Nördlich Lägern north of Zurich and close to the German border.
The exact plans for the storage will be presented by the government on Monday, but a definitive decision may take some time. Even after a yes from the government – which is expected, but has not yet arrived – the project can be stopped in a local referendum.
And the decision was not popular with the local population, who were taken aback by the decision, Swiss media reports.
– The whole situation feels surreal. We will have to leave our farm, we can’t live on top of a final storage warehouse, says farmer Ramona Keller to the newspaper 20 Minuten.
However, the radioactive nuclear waste must be stored somewhere. Switzerland currently has four reactors in three nuclear power plants and a total of 83,000 cubic meters of waste is estimated to be produced before the last nuclear power plants are closed. As the plan stands today, the country will begin work in 2060. The repository will then be sealed sometime in the next century.
In Sweden, in January this year, the government said yes to the final repository of spent nuclear fuel in two facilities, an encapsulation facility in Oskarshamn, and a final repository facility in Forsmark. A total of 12,000 tons of nuclear waste will be stored at a depth of approximately 500 meters in the ancient rock.