Repository plans in Switzerland: “Nuclear waste – that shakes you awake”

Switzerland wants to set up a nuclear waste repository on the German border – almost within sight of the municipality of Hohentengen in Baden-Württemberg. People are worried – and suspicious.

Rosi Drayer is stunned – and also a bit excited. She has been active in the anti-nuclear movement for years. Often nobody wanted to listen to her in the past. But now cameras are aimed at the community of Hohentengen in Baden-Württemberg and Drayer is giving interviews.

“The only thing that’s safe is the risk” reads a banner by her about a dozen colleagues, and she’s distributing leaflets that talk about a “location decision with many question marks.” And the people? listen to her “I think people are waking up here now. There’s a nuclear waste repository under their floor, it’s shaking them up.”

The “Boden” is the “Nördlich Lägern” area on the other side of the border. An area of ​​several square kilometers in neighboring Switzerland, fields and meadows, right on the border with Germany – where people are not happy about this plan. From Hohentengen, close to the border, it is only two kilometers to the planned Swiss repository.

Does it really have to be here?

If you ask some of the nearly 4,000 residents of Hohentengen, the mood is clear: “For us it’s depressing, scary and not entirely understandable,” says a man. A mother looks worried about the future and that of her children. And one doubts the suitability of the location: “You have to ask yourself, also geologically, whether it really has to be on the German-Swiss border,” he points out.

According to Nagra, the national cooperative for the disposal of radioactive waste in Switzerland, it must be in this border area, because the geologically best situation was found here: a large area of ​​Opalinus Clay, deep underground. In the future, the radioactive waste from nuclear power plants, industry and research throughout Switzerland will be embedded here at a depth of hundreds of meters. “This rock is very dense and it binds radioactive materials like a magnet,” explains Matthias Braun, Head of Nagra Switzerland.

Effects on groundwater?

And yet the German side reacts cautiously to suspiciously. “The most important thing is of course the issue of safety,” says Martin Benz, who has been the mayor of Hohentengen for more than 30 years. Nevertheless, or precisely because of this, he calls for further investigations. “Statements have to be made about radiological, radioactive effects and incidents. We are very concerned about the effects on the groundwater.”

The planned location on the Swiss border does not come as a surprise. For almost 50 years, Nagra has been looking for the best place for Swiss nuclear waste – three locations were shortlisted, one of which was “Nördlich Lägern” on Hochrein. Then in 2015 there was a withdrawal: “Nördlich Lägern” was said to be an unsuitable location. A reversal that is by no means political, but purely geological: “It turned out that the strength of the rock is about twice as good as it was assessed in the cautious scenario at the time,” explains Nagra boss Braun.

U-turn creates distrust

And yet it is precisely this about-face that causes distrust on the German side. “We’ve always said that if it’s the safest location, then we’ll support it,” says Hohentengen’s Mayor Benz. “But back in 2015, we were still being told full-bodiedly that every renowned expert would advise staying away from this location. So we definitely still have a need to talk.”

Rosi Drayer is now hoping that the newly ignited discussion will encourage her citizens’ initiative. “We have so many new registrations for our club. We always thought that people here were less interested in the topic.” That has now changed.

There will soon be an information event on the planned Swiss repository in the Hohentengen multi-purpose hall. With the mayor, with a representative of Nagra – and with many outraged citizens. At least that’s what Rosi Drayer hopes.