Landfilling of nuclear waste reaches an important milestone in Bern

Published on November 19, 2024 at 6:48 p.m. / Modified on November 19, 2024 at 6:49 p.m.

The step is administrative. It is no less “historic”, as the opponents of the project themselves admit. This Tuesday morning, in Bern, Nagra (National Cooperative Society for the Storage of Radioactive Waste) officially submitted an application for general authorization to the Federal Office of Energy (SFOE). The request concerns the construction of a deep geological repository for radioactive waste in the Zurich municipality of Stadel, in the “Nördlich Lägern” region.

“I have no sensational news to convey to you,” Matthias Braun, the general director of Nagra, almost apologized in the preamble to the numerous media present for the press conference. Because if the stage marks an important milestone, the outlines of the project are in fact already widely known. They are the result of a very long process, which began more than 50 years ago with the inclusion of the principle of burying radioactive waste in the law on nuclear energy. On December 4, 1972, Nagra was founded by nuclear power plant operators and the Confederation. The search for a site actually began in 2008.

Want to read all of our articles?

For CHF 29.- per month, enjoy unlimited access to our articles, without obligation!

I subscribe

Good reasons to subscribe to Le Temps:

• Unlimited access to all content available on the website.
• Unlimited access to all content available on the mobile application
• Sharing plan of 5 articles per month
• Consultation of the digital version of the newspaper from 10 p.m. the day before
• Access to supplements and T, the Temps magazine, in e-paper format
• Access to a set of exclusive benefits reserved for subscribers

Already have an account?
Log in