View source for Radiation levels at the Gorleben atomic waste repository too high

The legal annual radiation limit for the [[w:Transportbehälterlager Gorleben|Gorleben interim repository for high level radioactive waste]] is 0.3 mSv/a<ref name="gorleben-castor_prognose">https://www.gorleben-castor.de/index.php?cont=news&id=382&n=1 as at October 26, 2011</ref>. The Lower Saxony authority ''NLWKN'' on the basis of their measurements of the first half year of 2011 calculated an annual dose of 0.32 mSv<ref name="gorleben-castor_prognose" />. Thus, no additional [[Castor]] containers with high level atomic waste could be brought to the repository. The proposed 2011 Castor transport would have to be canceled. 

But, as this result doesn't suit the nuclear industry, new measurements were commissioned. The ''PTB'', a federal authority well-known for their pro-nuclear studies in the past, published their results: 0.212 mSv/a<ref name="gorleben-castor_prognose" /><ref name="gorleben-castor_messen">https://www.gorleben-castor.de/index.php?cont=news&id=369&n=1 as at October 26, 2011</ref><ref>http://www.contratom.de/castorticker2011.php?id=37487 as at October 26, 2011</ref>. An additional expertise by the ''TÜV'' (another expert organization supporting the nuclear industry) supported the ''PTB'' interpretation of the measurements<ref>http://de.nachrichten.yahoo.com/strahlung-gorleben-laut-t%C3%BCv-auch-durch-weitere-castoren-124400783.html as at October 26, 2011</ref>. A Greenpeace expertise calculated an accumulated annual dose of 0.305 mSv in case the proposed eleven Castor containers would be brought to the [[Gorleben]] repository in November and blamed the Lower Saxony Ministry of Environment for miscalculations in their data due to a wrong mixture of different measurements<ref>http://www.contratom.de/castorticker2011.php?id=38034 as at October 26, 2011</ref>.

Besides that, the detected neutron radiation in Gorleben, situated 1.9 km from the repository, has been doubled since the beginning of the storage of atomic waste in the facility<ref name="gorleben-castor_vorwuerfe">https://www.gorleben-castor.de/index.php?cont=news&id=372&n=1 as at October 26, 2011</ref>.
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The reason for the difference in the interpretation of the measurements is obvious: the pro-nuclear ''PTB'' calculates with a "natural background" radiation of 0.63 mSv/a instead of the 0.51 mSv/a the ''NLWKN'' uses<ref name="gorleben-castor_prognose" />. This is the amount they have to substract from the detected radiation at the repository<ref name="gorleben-castor_prognose" />. But, the local anti-nuclear activists argue, the used value for the background radiation is wrong<ref>https://www.gorleben-castor.de/index.php?cont=news&id=370&n=1 as at October 26, 2011</ref><ref name="gorleben-castor_messen" /> as the operator uses data measured only after highly radioactive Castor containers had already been brought to Gorleben<ref name="gorleben-castor_resonanz" />. Since 1997 according to public ''GNS'' reports the radiation at the repository rised continuously after the first Castor containers had been brought there<ref name="gorleben-castor_vorwuerfe" />.

When the exceeded legal limits were published, the Lower Saxony Ministry of Environment denied the facts<ref name="gorleben-castor_resonanz">https://www.gorleben-castor.de/index.php?cont=news&id=373&n=1 as at October 26, 2011</ref>. In reaction, the ''BI Lüchow-Dannenberg'' presented calculations of their own experts group proofing that the legal limits had been exceeded already since 2003<ref name="gorleben-castor_resonanz" />. Thus, they pressed criminal charges against the operator of the repository ''[[Nuclear Companies#GNS|GNS]]'' due to "illegal release of ionizing radiation"<ref name="gorleben-castor_resonanz" /><ref>https://www.gorleben-castor.de/index.php?cont=news&id=365&n=1 as at October 26, 2011</ref><ref>https://www.gorleben-castor.de/index.php?cont=news&id=363&n=1 as at October 26, 2011</ref>. The operator tried to trick on the detection results by changing the setting of the Castor containers in the plant concentrating them in the center of the hall to reach more distance from the walls and from the measurement devices<ref name="gorleben-castor_resonanz" />.


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[[Category: Nuclear Waste]]
[[Category: Castor]]
[[Category: Germany]]
[[Category: BI Umweltschutz Lüchow-Dannenberg]]
[[Category: Legal Issues]]
[[Category: English]]
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