Critics of a nuclear repository call for a mandatory referendum
Published: Friday, Nov 15th 2024, 11:20
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Even before the responsible authority submits the general license application for a geological repository next week, resistance is spreading: a committee is demanding that, after parliament, the people must also give the green light for the project.
It has been known since September 2022 that the final nuclear waste repository is to be drilled in the Zurich municipality of Stadel, more precisely in Haberstal. The Federal Council and Parliament will decide on the repository from 2029. Construction is scheduled to start in 2045.
The first low- and intermediate-level waste is then to be stored in around 2050. The area for high-level waste is scheduled to go into operation around 2060.
"We vote on cow horns"
"A decision with implications for a million years should be put to the people": with this slogan, a group relaunched the national debate on a nuclear repository in front of the media in Bern on Friday. According to the committee, such a complex issue should be subject to a mandatory referendum. This would require a majority of the cantons as well as a majority of the people.
"We are voting on cow horns. Then even more so on a highly toxic, highly radioactive nuclear waste dump in the middle of the Zurich conurbation, under the approach path of Kloten Airport, in close proximity to the Rhine and the national border," argue the opponents of the project according to the documents sent out in advance. A parliamentary resolution alone is not enough.
The committee includes organizations that, according to their own statements, "deal with the repository scientifically and politically". Critics include Schaffhausen SP National Councillor Martina Munz, who is stepping down at the end of the month, and former Zurich GLP Cantonal Councillor Karin Joss.
No plan B available
They are fundamentally opposed to the project of the National Cooperative for the Disposal of Radioactive Waste (Nagra) and its "one-sided communication". As the party responsible for the project, Nagra defines the termination criteria itself, there is no plan B and there are no exit options. "Alternatives are needed in the event that the project has to be abandoned."
From the point of view of opponents, a landfill for radioactive waste is a danger for future generations, for people and the environment. In addition, the easy retrievability required by law is not given. Proof that nuclear waste can be brought back to the surface over thousands of years in the event of an incident cannot be provided in soft clay rock with hundreds of tiny tunnels.
"With this nuclear waste repository, we are not solving any problems for future generations, on the contrary: we are creating them," the committee states. Nuclear waste should be protected, looked after and researched further instead of investing billions of francs in a landfill "that will eventually leak and become a mega-remediation case".
30,000 pages of reports
Nagra will submit the general license applications for the deep geological repository for radioactive waste and the fuel element packaging facility to the Swiss Federal Office of Energy (SFOE) next Tuesday. In total, it is submitting 13 application documents to the federal government, which are based on over 200 scientific reports. Together, these reports comprise around 30,000 pages.
By spring 2025, the responsible federal authorities will check whether all legally required documents have been submitted. Only when these are complete will the general license applications be published. From this point onwards, the authorities will begin a detailed examination of the content of the applications.
At the same time, planning in Stadel is to go ahead. Negotiations on compensation for the affected municipalities are to begin this year. In addition to the municipalities, federal government and cantons, the nuclear power plant operators, who are responsible for the majority of the compensation, will also be involved. However, it is still unclear how many millions of francs in total will be paid to the municipalities in the cantons of Zurich, Aargau, Schaffhausen and Germany.
©Keystone/SDA
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