At the beginning of the nineteen-seventies, the then Federal Government planned to erect a "Nuclear Disposal Centre". The idea was to erect all plants required for closing the nuclear fuel cycle (reprocessing, waste treatment and final disposal) at one location. The following prerequisites had to be fulfilled:
- suitable hydrological conditions at the surface
- suitable hydrogeological conditions
- low risk of earthquakes
- stable ground at the construction site
- a suitable geological situation underground
- the possibility of disposing waste in geologically stable horizons.
The Federal Government at that time searched for a location and reviewed 26 different sites. Due to the insights gained from salt-mining and the first results from the underground laboratory at the Asse, the investigations were focused on evaporite rocks (rock salt). However, other types of rock were also examined.
Since the rock salt deposits of the Federal Republic of Germany, as it was at that time, were mainly to be found on the territory of Lower Saxony, the Government of this state carried out its own investigations parallel to the search of the Federal Government. The Federal Government selected three and the Government of the state of Lower Saxony chose four locations for a nuclear disposal centre. All locations were situated above salt domes which were then to be explored as to their suitability as repositories.
The site selection project group convened by the Government of Lower Saxony in 1976 chose, in three selection phases, four out of a total of 140 salt domes: Wahn, Lichtenhorst, Gorleben and Mariaglück. During the last phase of the project, these four locations were examined once again in an additional intensive discussion within the project group. Here, three of the chosen locations revealed at least one criterion which excluded them as potential repository. Gorleben was thus the only location proposed to the Government as being an optimal site.
On the basis of this selection process, the Government of Lower Saxony decided in 1977 to erect a Nuclear Disposal Centre at Gorleben and to explore the salt dome of Gorleben in order to find out more about its suitability as repository. This decision was publicly discussed in the so-called "Gorleben hearing" organised by the Government of Lower Saxony in 1979. The issue of a disposal centre was particularly intensively discussed.
As a result of this hearing, the Government of the state certified the principal viability of the project, however, it recommended not to pursue the project of "reprocessing" at Gorleben for political reasons. The following was noted concerning the topic of geological disposal:
"The state Government has assured itself that the disposal of radioactive waste in a suitable salt dome does not bear any risk either for present generations or for those living in the immediate future. For further generations, the risk is low when compared to other risks of life."
Thus, the widely held public opinion, that the Gorleben site was selected for political reasons does not correspond with the traceable facts.
