“Fight is our last chance now”, farmer Walter Traube says.
He has lost the very last lawsuit against the intended ultimate disposal place for radioactive waste in Salzgitter on Thursday. The german Federal Constitutional Court decided that Traube doesn’t have the right to complain although he owns and cultivates the land above the pit Konrad.
The pit is a former iron ore mine proposed as a deep geological repository for medium- and low level radioactive waste. The ultimate disposal place for radioactive waste has been planned since 1975.
“Who will buy my grain and my sugar beets in the future?”, Traube asks. He prosecuted vicariously for other farmers, neigbours and the city of Salzgitter. After the court decision about hundred inhabitants joined a spontaneous demonstration at the pit.
The license approves the storage of up to 303.000 m³ of low- and medium level radioactive waste. The expected traffic is 10 road freight vehicles and one train of 20 freight wagons per week. By the end of 2007 around 945 million euros have been spent on reconnaissance and planning, for the remaining necessary measures the costs are estimated at another 900 million euros.
In the year 2013 the permanent disposal site will be brought on line. In Germany nuclear power has a negative image. Salzgitter fears people will leave the city if they can and new inhabitants won‘t come.
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