According to the Münster District Government (Bezirksregierung Münster) “unpackaged respectively foil-wrapped” radioactive plant components are now to be brought to the interim depository in Ahaus. The district government does not reveal from which German nuclear power stations this atomic waste is to come. Moreover, just before Christmas the operator of the interim depository BZA (a subsidiary of the large power companies) filed an application with the Federal Radiation Protection Agency (BfS) for permission to store in Ahaus 270 steel containers with vitrified waste from the reprocessing plant in La Hague, France.

The old year ends in Ahaus with a clear message: Come what may, the atomic industry intends to fill the existing light construction hall (!!!) with atomic waste up to the ceiling, regardless of what kind it is and where it’s from. And as the licensing authority, the Münster District Government is playing the expected shoddy role in this manoeuvre, because it appears that no one there knows anything:
In a letter to the UWG Ahaus [an independent voters’ list] the district government writes that the places of origin of the waste applied for are irrelevant to the licensing procedure. It would “still have to be examined” whether the construction of the hall needed to be changed, it wrote. A “possible participation of the population” in the licensing procedure also needed to be “investigated”. In other words: We don’ know nuttin’ and don’ wanna know nuttin’ and are “checkin’ out” everything.

Researches by anti-nuclear initiatives have discovered, however, that atomic waste for Ahaus must be expected, for example, from the shut down Würgassen nuclear power plant on the Weser River [  http://www.eon-kernkraft.com/frameset_german/nuclear-power-plant/nuclear-power-plant_locations/energy_nuclearpower_kkwuergassen.jsp]. For everything else the atomic industry wants a blank cheque for generally depositing atomic waste in Ahaus “from ongoing operation and the shut down of German atomic power stations”. The limitation to 10 years applied for is just eyewash to try to stop people thinking that Ahaus could become a final depository. And even in the “best” case the atomic waste would be senselessly carted through the country every few years – and we all know: every nuclear transport is one too many!
And so the new year will begin with protests against these new storing plans for Ahaus. On 3 February a demonstration will begin at 1 p.m. on the Prinzipalmarkt outside the district government in Münster. The motto is “No new atomic waste to Ahaus – Stop the atomic industry”. Two motorcades through the Münsterland to the demo are planned, one from Ahaus, the other from the Ruhr region. Other issues at the demo will be uranium enrichment and uranium transports, against which much resistance has stirred in 2006 from Pierrelatte in southern France to Gronau and from Gronau to Lake Baikal in Siberia.

One thing is clear: In the new year, too, we will need much resistance to cause the unscrupulous atomic industry as much trouble as possible.


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