PR:Researcher: Safe Final Disposal of Nuclear Waste Impossible

Media Release – for immediate publication Thursday June 10, 2010

Press Conference and Talk in the Finnish Parliament's Visitor Center:

Researcher: Safe Final Disposal of Nuclear Waste Impossible
HelsinkiOn Wednesday June 16 the German researcher and journalist Falk Beyer will give a talk about the challenges of the final disposal of nuclear waste at 12 noon in the visitor center of the Parliament of Finland. The event will be opened with a press conference followed by the presentation entitled „The Nuclear Waste Disposal Disaster in Germany“. Beyer was invited by MP Pentti Tiusasen to speak about the experience with final repositories in Germany.

Germany started the search for suitable final disposal sites for all kinds of radioactive materials in the 1960s both in the former Eastern and Western state. Over decades more than 30 commercial nuclear reactors were in operation in Germany. Today, 17 reactors are still producing electricity at 12 sites in Germany. Four final disposal sites have been in use, still have permission for operation or are proposed as final repositories. Thus, there is a great experience with final disposal issues of nuclear waste in Germany.

For several years, Falk Beyer studied the last final disposal site in operation, the Morsleben repository in Sachsen-Anhalt close to the former German-German border. He founded the „Morsleben Archive“, an independent collection of currently more than 2,800 documents concerning the former central final disposal site of the entire GDR (German Democratic Republic). Focus points of the research were the site selection, geological criteria and challenges, safety issues, the political backgrounds and struggles as well as the disposal techniques used to deal with the radioactive inventory. Beyer published a study (University of Magdeburg) on safety issues in Morsleben and a book on the GDR history of the facility.

„Huge amounts of dangerous long-term radioactive nuclear waste are produced by nuclear power plants - it's not only a threat for people and the environment today, but also for all future generations for about 1,000,000 years“, says the researcher and journalist. „No safe final disposal site has been found anywhere in the world for 50 years – and, whichever way, according to scientists advising the German government, the goal of a safe final disposal of nuclear waste is in general impossible.“

The challenges of final disposal will be outlined based on the example of the nuclear waste situation in Germany. The talk will also discuss the Scandinavian concept for final disposal of nuclear waste and show that this model is faced with even worse difficulties. Beyer will explain the general challenges causing the impossibility of a safe longterm final disposal of nuclear waste as well as the special challenges that are resolvable in theory but, to this day, have not been overcome anywhere in the world. The press conference and the presentation will be held in English.

Dear editor! You are warmly invited to attend the press conference and the following presentation in the Parliament's visitor center. If you have questions beforehand you are welcome to contact the speaker at [mailto:falkbeyerATgmx.de falkbeyer AT gmx.de] or at +358 41 7243254.

-- Nuclear Heritage Network WebSite: http://nuclear-heritage.net E-Mail: [mailto:contactATnuclear-heritage.net contact AT nuclear-heritage.net]

This media release is provided by the "Nuclear Heritage Network". It is an international network of anti-nuclear activists. This informal alliance supports the worldwide anti-nuclear work. The Nuclear Heritage Network is no label, has no standard opinion and no representatives. All activists of the network speak for themselves or for the groups they represent.