Main operating plan for the construction of the Konrad repository accepted
Plan allows for the conversion into a repository for low and intermediate-level radioactive waste
The “Main operating plan for the construction of the Konrad repository” applied for by the Federal Office for Radiation Protection (BfS) on October 16, 2007, has now been accepted by the Landesamt für Bergbau, Energie und Geologie Niedersachsen (Lower Saxonian State Office for Mining, Energy and Geology). The main operating plan allows for the necessary mining and building work and is thus an essential step towards the conversion of the Konrad mine into a repository for low and intermediate-level radioactive waste.
The plan is part of mining law and supplements the plan-approval decision according to Atomic Energy Act granted in 2002. It provides the foundations according to mining law allowing the conversion of Konrad mine into a repository. Work not yet included in the licence according to Atomic Energy Act (plan-approval decision) can thus be carried out until the Konrad repository is put in to operation.
For example, the licence permits the underground excavation of the first emplacement areas that have to be in place when the first waste will be disposed of in 2013 when the repository is planned to be put in to operation. It also comprises the remediation of the existing hoisting plants, which is necessary for occupational and operational safety reasons irrespective of the use as a repository.
Regarding the Konrad mine, BfS is operator of the mine and operator according to Atomic Energy Act. The main operating plan now accepted by the board of mines will be in effect for the entire period of conversion into a repository and for the preparation of repository operation, which will start at the end of 2013.
Prior to the actual construction of a repository in the Konrad mine some preparatory work must be carried out and which BfS has begun in 2007. In a preparatory phase lasting two years the necessary infrastructure and the premises for awarding the building work are currently being created. The conversion of the Konrad mine into a repository will then take about four years. The next steps on the premises will include the remediation of the Konrad 1 hoisting plant and the associated dismantling and construction of some new buildings.
