During the mine's construction in 1906, no one knew that decades later, radioactive waste would be dumped here. (Photo: © Ronald Frommann / Clean Energy Wire)

Feature

Why Germany is digging up its nuclear waste

EU Political

Green Economy

by Peter Teffer, Wolfenbuettel, Germany,

During the mine's construction in 1906, no one knew that decades later, radioactive waste would be dumped here. (Photo: © Ronald Frommann / Clean Energy Wire)

It seemed such a good idea at the time. At least, to the German politicians in charge.

But in hindsight, the Asse II salt mine should never have been used in the 1960s and 1970s as a site to dump nuclear waste, said Ingo Bautz of the Federal Office for Radiation Protection.

“Today, nobody would choose this mine to place radioactive waste,” Bautz told journalists during a recent tour of the mine, in the north-western state of Lower Saxony.

“People were thinking in different t...