The Federal Company for Final Disposal (BGE) recently determined that 90 regions in Germany appear suitable from a geological point of view. This marks an important milestone in the multi-stage search process. This is to be open-ended, unbiased and transparent. The public is to be involved in all important phases so that the mistakes made at Gorleben are not repeated.
 

The topic of final disposal is highly emotive and controversial. Following the publication of the BGE interim report, political voices were quickly heard warning that certain regions were being targeted, even though they are already severely affected by the lignite phase-out and structural change.

The search process involves unpleasant decisions and a fair compromise needs to be found. Whether this can be successful and whether protests and blockades can be avoided also depends on the design of the search process. This will only be accepted if participation takes place on an equal footing, the necessary information is prepared in an understandable way and the uncertainties of the purely scientific analysis are pointed out transparently. The repository search process is thus exemplary of a new governance model that is intended to contribute to fact-based, non-domination-based consensus-building in the appropriate handling of other major social issues (climate change, genetic engineering, vaccinations, etc.).

We entered into a discussion on this problem area:

In the format of an online conference with a panel discussion, scientists, activists and politicians had their say.
There was also the opportunity for the audience to ask questions to the experts.