On nuclear pasts
and radiant futures
Logo: SALT.CLAY.ROCK.
Artistic research
and exhibition

Exhibition research display object 2: Stressball man

24/12/08
nGbK

This Stressball Man is a gift from the Bundesgesellschaft für Endlagerung (BGE, Federal Company for Radioactive Waste Disposal), which has been commissioned by the German federal government to search for a final repository site for high-level radioactive waste within Germany. The Site Selection Act of 2017 regulates the repository search and stipulates that the site must be the one that for over one million years can guarantee the best possible safety. The law also requires that Germany may not enter into any agreements with other countries to export its highly radioactive nuclear waste for final storage. The site for a final repository is to be “determined in the Federal Republic of Germany.” The BGE, founded in 2016, is therefore tasked with finding a site for this final nuclear waste repository in Germany; it is also responsible for the storage of low- and intermediate-level radioactive waste and is therefore also active at sites such as Morsleben and the Asse II mine in the county of Wolfenbüttel. There is already an approved repository in Germany for this kind of waste, which is created by both the nuclear energy and the medical sector, among other sources: the Konrad repository in Salzgitter is scheduled to go into operation in the early 2030s.

Source: corporate schwag from the BGE (Federal Company for Radioactive Waste Disposal)

However, the BGE is not only dealing with the challenge of finding a final repository from a technical and scientific perspective. It also has the task of making its process of finding a final repository and associated issues comprehensible to the public. They must therefore become particularly active in the regions that are shortlisted for the final disposal of radioactive waste. The BGE, in its online magazine “Einblicke [Insights]” suggests that in the future, dialog between the BGE and communities should help determine the process of finding a final storage site. From online meetings and citizen participation in every sub-area investigated by the BGE, to workshops with young people under the hashtag #Dein_Endlager?! [#your final repository] and an extremely detailed information policy, a process is being initiated that appears to be fully transparent. A final result in their search for a final repository for highly radioactive waste is expected by 2074 and the search - it is emphasized - is based on a “white map”, which means that no areas are preferred in advance.