Germany has a dirty little secret. In the middle of the country, deep underground, a radioactive waste dump has been leaking for decades. And nobody really knows what do to with it.
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00:00We're at ASE2, a former salt mine that was turned into a radioactive waste storage facility.
00:06Annalena Zimmermann works for the mine's operator and is giving us an exclusive tour.
00:15And we're ready.
00:16Here's a dosage meter. Please wear it the whole time.
00:20This measures radioactivity.
00:23If there were radioactivity, it would show on the meter.
00:26This is our oxygen in case of emergency.
00:32Not the best feeling to have to be this prepared.
00:36Between 1967 and 1978, around 126,000 drums of low- and intermediate-level waste were brought here into the ASE2 mine shaft.
00:48Most of it is waste from nuclear reactors, like filters or construction material.
00:53A small part is waste from research and medical facilities.
00:57But the ASE2 also contains some uranium and plutonium.
01:01All of the waste was stored in 13 chambers, marked here in red.
01:05And it's all still lying around today.
01:11Oh my God, it's so windy!
01:14For our first stop, we're getting as close to the nuclear waste as possible.
01:24This is the charging chamber.
01:26Charging in this case means loading.
01:28A crane used to be over there.
01:30The waste would arrive and they would open this shaft here.
01:34The barrels would be lowered into this shaft, one at a time, and deposited into the storage chamber that's directly beneath us.
01:41Right beneath us.
01:43Exactly. The highest point of the cone is probably right under us.
01:48These barrels were regular metal, not made to hold in radiation.
01:52Many may have been damaged while being brought in, and it's unclear how radioactive the inside of the chamber actually is.
02:01We're standing 12, 13 or 14 meters above the waste, and the dosage meter doesn't show any radioactivity.
02:09Exactly. You can see it's registering 0.9.
02:14That's because the salt acts as an excellent shield.
02:18Down here we're exposed to less radiation than up at the information center.
02:24Salt also conducts heat well, meaning that warm radioactive waste can cool down without damaging the salt wall significantly.
02:31On top of that, contrary to rock, it can expand and flow.
02:35Sealing and filling of the chamber can be done by the salt.
02:39Contrary to rock, it can expand and flow, sealing and filling cavities of its own accord, making it hard to permeate.
02:47So, great in theory, if there wasn't this not-so-tiny problem with the water.
02:53Because the biggest problem the ASSA has is that there is a lot of water that's leaking into the tunnels.
02:59There are more than 500 leaks in the mine.
03:02The ASSA, including the chambers with radioactive waste, could fill up with this water.
03:07To stop that from happening, the operator BGE is collecting it.
03:11We're headed to the main water collection point inside the mine.
03:17You can see the stalactites up there on the ceiling.
03:21So it's definitely wet there.
03:24The liquid that we're catching in the storage basins comes from up there.
03:29Today, about 12,000 liters of water pour in every day.
03:33It has to be checked for contamination.
03:37This water is uncontaminated, so it can be exempted by the Radiation Protection Agency and it can be transported above ground.
03:46But the incoming water is not the only problem.
03:49When the salt mine was operational, nobody thought this would become a storage place for nuclear waste.
03:55To maximize profits, many tunnels were dug close to each other.
04:00Safety precautions and support structures were reduced to a minimum to mine as much salt as possible.
04:06The pressure of the rock surrounding the salt constantly pushes against the mine and causes cracks.
04:12That's why over 90% of the mine had to be filled up with salt and concrete to stabilize it.
04:19And also why a total of over 600 people work here to monitor and further secure the mine.
04:30The big question really is, how could this have happened?
04:34Back then, they wanted to save money by repurposing old mines.
04:40The mine was closed in 1964. It wasn't economically viable anymore.
04:46That happened to be exactly when the government was looking for a facility.
04:50In the end, they chose the Assatou mine, even though the decision was already controversial back then,
04:56due to the local geology, the mine's relatively advanced age and the risk of leaks.
05:02The mine cost 800,000 German marks at the time,
05:05which adjusted for inflation would be about 2 million euros today.
05:09Seemingly a bargain.
05:12The growing nuclear sector needed a dumping ground fast, so the risks were downplayed.
05:17The entire project was supposed to be a quick fix,
05:20with little to no thought spared for the long-term consequences.
05:24At first, Assa was declared to only be a research storage facility.
05:28But actually, almost all of the intermediate and low-level waste from West German nuclear reactors was then dumped here.
05:35In the beginning, the waste was stacked.
05:37But after a while, barrels were literally dumped into the mine
05:40to reduce the radioactive exposure of the truck drivers.
05:43Dump trucks also drove over the waste, damaging many of the barrels.
05:47Energy companies didn't pay anything to store their waste until 1975.
05:53And we don't even exactly know which type of waste was dumped,
05:57because the documentation was very poorly and vaguely done.
06:05In 1988, water starts leaking in.
06:08Multiple mining shafts collapse.
06:10But the public is only informed about the magnitude of the problem almost 10 years later.
06:15In 1997, the only way to find out how much water was dumped
06:20In 1997, the operator suggests closing the mine with all of the waste inside.
06:25The plan does not mention anything about the long-time safety and possible contamination.
06:31In 2008, the news breaks that water has been coming into contact with radioactive waste for years.
06:37Pools of contaminated water had been collecting right in front of the chambers containing it,
06:42and the operator had disposed of it inside the mine without permission.
06:47In 2010, it turns out that 10 times more intermediate nuclear waste is stored than was estimated before.
06:53Years of political mishaps involving nuclear power prompt protests across Germany.
07:01Finally, in 2013, the law Lex Asse is enacted.
07:04The government decides that the mine is too dangerous, and the waste needs to be taken out.
07:09Since many of the barrels are damaged, no human can enter the chambers.
07:14They have to be surveyed by remote-controlled cameras like this one, and retrieved by remotely operated machines.
07:20A new shaft must be built to transport the barrels out.
07:29In the end, the challenge is the mine itself, which limits what we can do.
07:36The deformation of the mine is ongoing, the leaks pose some level of danger, and time is another factor.
07:45The worst-case scenario would be a leak that we couldn't get under control.
07:49We'd have to close the mine and leave the radioactive waste underground.
07:53That waste could eventually come to the surface.
07:59And even if we ignore that frightening scenario, all of this is going to cost a lot of money.
08:05Just preparing for the removal will cost an estimated 4.7 billion euros.
08:10And that does not include any of the retrieval itself, which is scheduled to start in 2033.
08:17The waste is supposed to be sorted in an interim overground facility, and then transported to, well, where exactly?
08:26We need a final storage site where we can bring the radioactive waste.
08:30We don't have that yet, so we need a temporary location.
08:35Asse, it's a symbol of a time when nuclear power had to succeed, come what may.
08:40And the long-term consequences of the new technology were largely downplayed or ignored.