Glück auf! Ich bin heil wieder zurückgekommen, aber nicht als gleicher Mensch. Ich hoffe heute Nacht noch berichten zu können.

A short while ago I was allowed to visit a long term nuclear waste storage facility, built to hold low and mid tier radioactive material for geological time (hundreds of thousands to a few million years).

I entered early in the morning and got into an elevator driving me 800 meters deep, with the complex tunnel system we toured going up to a kilometer down from the surface. I came up in the late afternoon a changed man due to what I've seen.

@ErikUden why dose low level ways need long term storage?
I thought that stuff was safe within weeks or months. Honestly I though med level only need a few decades of storage

A short while ago I was allowed to visit a long term nuclear waste storage facility, built to hold low and mid tier radioactive material for geological time (hundreds of thousands to a few million years).

I entered early in the morning and got into an elevator driving me 800 meters deep, with the complex tunnel system we toured going up to a kilometer down from the surface. I came up in the late afternoon a changed man due to what I've seen.

After multiple hours underground, having already met dozens of workers, who spend their days at a job without any sunlight in a grotesque world I could've never imagined, we finally arrived at the actual site where nuclear waste will be stored for millenia. I've seen the many tunnels stretching multiple kilometers in one direction in which the actual barrels and other containers for nuclear material will be put, completely drowned in cement, segment by segment, and then closed off for a time longer than the human species has existed, starting the load up in 2030 until 2070 in the city of Salzgitter, in my state of Lower-Saxony.

This facility will only be able to store half of Germany's low- and mid-tier nuclear waste, only a bit over 300.000m³ of it. While this type of waste makes up for ~95% of all nuclear waste in Germany, it's still less than a percent of total radiation emitted by all nuclear material. The other 99% is emitted by the high-tier nuclear waste, which there currently isn't any solution for storing on planet earth, yet. Don't get confused by the classiciations like “low”, “mid”, and “high”, as there is no international (or even European) standard for classifying nuclear waste. I was told by the leader of the BGE, Germany's federal company for radioactive waste disposal, that there was an attempt to create such a standard at a working group of the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency), which she was a part of, but they gave up after just four weeks.

This facility was so deep underground as a rather arbitrary choice, simply because that's how deep the iron miners went when this was an actual mine. The storage facility in France (Le Monge) is only 500 meters deep, in some European countries even less. The advantage of this here is that no ice age or glacier period has ever affected the underground this low (permafrost or thermal penetration doesn't go deeper than 500m). Still, by today's standards for nuclear long term waste storage, a facility like this wouldn't be chosen, not just due to nearby underground water streams potentially breaking in and leaking nuclear waste into one of the largest rivers of Europe, but also because the city formed around the iron mine, and the 40 years of loading nuclear waste down this facility will come with accidents and an increased radiation to the people living here.

The room, if you could call it that, rather the tunnel, the complex where nuclear waste would be stored, was hot. Like Icarus who flew too close to the sun, I wasn't aware that just a kilometer below the earth's crust, we'd reach sweating temperatures of 37°C to even 40°C due to the earth's core emitting its heat.

While the goal of this presentation was for Germany's federal company for radioactive waste disposal (BGE) to convince us that this facility was safe so we'd endorse it in state and federal parliament, maybe even for them to polish their image, there were certain topics they omitted talking about. My favorite topic was one of them: Long-term nuclear waste warning messages.

We were told about how perfect this facility was, how nothing could penetrate it, and in geological time, all the simulations possibly proving otherwise, were misleading, so I asked about the one thing they forgot mentioning: the human element. Just 5000 years ago they built the pyramids, now archeologists rediscover and search through them. With billions going into this facility, won't people finding any record of this place possibly believe humanity's most valuable items to be stored here? Shouldn't we install long-term warning messages for future generations? I asked.

The leader of the facility responded “We cannot take responsibility for future civilizations.”

Standing in the chambers that are built to exist for over two million years, those words sent a shiver down my spine. I realized that this would be our generation's legacy: debt and a broken planet.

After multiple hours underground, having already met dozens of workers, who spend their days at a job without any sunlight in a grotesque world I could've never imagined, we finally arrived at the actual site where nuclear waste will be stored for millenia. I've seen the many tunnels stretching multiple kilometers in one direction in which the actual barrels and other containers for nuclear material will be put, completely drowned in cement, segment by segment, and then closed off for a time longer than the human species has existed, starting the load up in 2030 until 2070 in the city of Salzgitter, in my state of Lower-Saxony.

This facility will only be able to store half of Germany's low- and mid-tier nuclear waste, only a bit over 300.000m³ of it. While this type of waste makes up for ~95% of all nuclear waste in Germany, it's still less than a percent of total radiation emitted by all nuclear material. The other 99% is emitted by the high-tier nuclear waste, which there currently isn't any solution for storing on planet earth, yet. Don't get confused by the classiciations like “low”, “mid”, and “high”, as there is no international (or even European) standard for classifying nuclear waste. I was told by the leader of the BGE, Germany's federal company for radioactive waste disposal, that there was an attempt to create such a standard at a working group of the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency), which she was a part of, but they gave up after just four weeks.

This facility was so deep underground as a rather arbitrary choice, simply because that's how deep the iron miners went when this was an actual mine. The storage facility in France (Le Monge) is only 500 meters deep, in some European countries even less. The advantage of this here is that no ice age or glacier period has ever affected the underground this low (permafrost or thermal penetration doesn't go deeper than 500m). Still, by today's standards for nuclear long term waste storage, a facility like this wouldn't be chosen, not just due to nearby underground water streams potentially breaking in and leaking nuclear waste into one of the largest rivers of Europe, but also because the city formed around the iron mine, and the 40 years of loading nuclear waste down this facility will come with accidents and an increased radiation to the people living here.

The room, if you could call it that, rather the tunnel, the complex where nuclear waste would be stored, was hot. Like Icarus who flew too close to the sun, I wasn't aware that just a kilometer below the earth's crust, we'd reach sweating temperatures of 37°C to even 40°C due to the earth's core emitting its heat.

While the goal of this presentation was for Germany's federal company for radioactive waste disposal (BGE) to convince us that this facility was safe so we'd endorse it in state and federal parliament, maybe even for them to polish their image, there were certain topics they omitted talking about. My favorite topic was one of them: Long-term nuclear waste warning messages.

We were told about how perfect this facility was, how nothing could penetrate it, and in geological time, all the simulations possibly proving otherwise, were misleading, so I asked about the one thing they forgot mentioning: the human element. Just 5000 years ago they built the pyramids, now archeologists rediscover and search through them. With billions going into this facility, won't people finding any record of this place possibly believe humanity's most valuable items to be stored here? Shouldn't we install long-term warning messages for future generations? I asked.

The leader of the facility responded “We cannot take responsibility for future civilizations.”

Standing in the chambers that are built to exist for over two million years, those words sent a shiver down my spine. I realized that this would be our generation's legacy: debt and a broken planet.

@ErikUden

Thanks for the report which unsurprisingly did nothing to dispell my concerns about nuclear power and the treatment of its waste.

"We were told about how perfect this facility was"

Was that before or after everybody got handed one (1) oxygen bottle 'just in case the tunnel collapsed and you'd be waiting for rescue for weeks'?

“We cannot take responsibility for future civilizations.”

That's a cute way of saying "we don't give a fuck".

“I don't believe in long-term nuclear waste warning messages” the leader of the nuclear waste storage facility continued. "I subscribe to the philosophy that we should ultimately forget about this place.”

She explained herself quite rationally, saying that any warning sign is at the end of the day a sign. Shutting everything down, not leaving anything to notice behind, except for a landscape indistinguishable from nature, would be ideal. She fantasized about closing it all down and growing green grass on top for a few minutes.

It was also her first time standing here, underground, at the actual site where nuclear waste will be stored, as in her years of managing this facility, often from afar in the name of the federal company for radioactive waste disposal, she was never underground. Unlike all the other people in white suits, she wasn't greeted by any of the workers down here.

She continued saying that no civilization before the industrial revolution was able to dig as deep as this nuclear waste will be stored. Once we were able to dig so deeply, we also had devices that could detect radioactivity. In that regard she stated that “We cannot take responsibility for future civilizations.”

While I see her logic, I disagree. There will be records of this place, no matter how far underground, it will never be indistinguishable from nature. Half of all of Germany's nuclear waste will be driven here. That's tens of thousands of trucks from the entire country with one destination: Salzgitter, Lower-Saxony.

Enough money to solve homelessness multiple times over will be poured into one dot of a place. So close to a city with people remembering and retelling what was here. Especially with its past of mining iron ore, of which only a fraction of a percent has ever been dug out, I cannot believe that humans will leave this place behind, and when they do find it, there will be no message telling them to stop.

Our species has existed for 300,000 years. The first recorded civilization is around 10,000 years old, the burning of the library of Alexandria, which made humanity forget so much of ancient civilization, was not even two thousand years ago, and the dark ages ended 600 years ago. Not even 200 years ago, we still weren't finished with the industrial revolution, and only 80 years ago, one human lifetime, the first nuclear reactor was built. Most of all nuclear waste was produced in the past decades, yet here we are dumping it below the earth's outer crust, and making decisions for a period of time no living being could ever comprehend, only because we valued immediate reward over long term wellbeing.

Most of our history is forgotten, and the history that is known is always perceived through a miopic, contemporary lense. Yet in all we believe to understand about ourselves, no human, be they king or emperor, has ever been as greedy, as self-centered, as reckless as to make a decision for future generations for as long as we've done without even flinching. This underground nuclear waste facility stands as a monument, a time capsule for everything the future needs to know about humanity under capitalism.

The specific clay formation this facility is dug into has not changed within any measurable geological time. It's ideal for long term storage like this, because when closed off without any air gaps, all layers of stone and rubble and dirt artificially re-done, the nuclear waste is supposed to just stay within that blob of clay which was here before the dinosaurs were wiped out, and will be here once we are gone too.

After we've filled it up, there's no place in Germany for the other half of nuclear waste. What reasonable human could suggest continuing the energy production that lead to this waste in the first place, as if it was nothing?

“I don't believe in long-term nuclear waste warning messages” the leader of the nuclear waste storage facility continued. "I subscribe to the philosophy that we should ultimately forget about this place.”

She explained herself quite rationally, saying that any warning sign is at the end of the day a sign. Shutting everything down, not leaving anything to notice behind, except for a landscape indistinguishable from nature, would be ideal. She fantasized about closing it all down and growing green grass on top for a few minutes.

It was also her first time standing here, underground, at the actual site where nuclear waste will be stored, as in her years of managing this facility, often from afar in the name of the federal company for radioactive waste disposal, she was never underground. Unlike all the other people in white suits, she wasn't greeted by any of the workers down here.

She continued saying that no civilization before the industrial revolution was able to dig as deep as this nuclear waste will be stored. Once we were able to dig so deeply, we also had devices that could detect radioactivity. In that regard she stated that “We cannot take responsibility for future civilizations.”

While I see her logic, I disagree. There will be records of this place, no matter how far underground, it will never be indistinguishable from nature. Half of all of Germany's nuclear waste will be driven here. That's tens of thousands of trucks from the entire country with one destination: Salzgitter, Lower-Saxony.

Enough money to solve homelessness multiple times over will be poured into one dot of a place. So close to a city with people remembering and retelling what was here. Especially with its past of mining iron ore, of which only a fraction of a percent has ever been dug out, I cannot believe that humans will leave this place behind, and when they do find it, there will be no message telling them to stop.

Our species has existed for 300,000 years. The first recorded civilization is around 10,000 years old, the burning of the library of Alexandria, which made humanity forget so much of ancient civilization, was not even two thousand years ago, and the dark ages ended 600 years ago. Not even 200 years ago, we still weren't finished with the industrial revolution, and only 80 years ago, one human lifetime, the first nuclear reactor was built. Most of all nuclear waste was produced in the past decades, yet here we are dumping it below the earth's outer crust, and making decisions for a period of time no living being could ever comprehend, only because we valued immediate reward over long term wellbeing.

Most of our history is forgotten, and the history that is known is always perceived through a miopic, contemporary lense. Yet in all we believe to understand about ourselves, no human, be they king or emperor, has ever been as greedy, as self-centered, as reckless as to make a decision for future generations for as long as we've done without even flinching. This underground nuclear waste facility stands as a monument, a time capsule for everything the future needs to know about humanity under capitalism.

The specific clay formation this facility is dug into has not changed within any measurable geological time. It's ideal for long term storage like this, because when closed off without any air gaps, all layers of stone and rubble and dirt artificially re-done, the nuclear waste is supposed to just stay within that blob of clay which was here before the dinosaurs were wiped out, and will be here once we are gone too.

After we've filled it up, there's no place in Germany for the other half of nuclear waste. What reasonable human could suggest continuing the energy production that lead to this waste in the first place, as if it was nothing?

@ErikUden I know this is a serious topic... But why do the first two photos look like coming from Doom 3?

@ErikUden
Still better than the ash and emissions from coal plants.

“I don't believe in long-term nuclear waste warning messages” the leader of the nuclear waste storage facility continued. "I subscribe to the philosophy that we should ultimately forget about this place.”

She explained herself quite rationally, saying that any warning sign is at the end of the day a sign. Shutting everything down, not leaving anything to notice behind, except for a landscape indistinguishable from nature, would be ideal. She fantasized about closing it all down and growing green grass on top for a few minutes.

It was also her first time standing here, underground, at the actual site where nuclear waste will be stored, as in her years of managing this facility, often from afar in the name of the federal company for radioactive waste disposal, she was never underground. Unlike all the other people in white suits, she wasn't greeted by any of the workers down here.

She continued saying that no civilization before the industrial revolution was able to dig as deep as this nuclear waste will be stored. Once we were able to dig so deeply, we also had devices that could detect radioactivity. In that regard she stated that “We cannot take responsibility for future civilizations.”

While I see her logic, I disagree. There will be records of this place, no matter how far underground, it will never be indistinguishable from nature. Half of all of Germany's nuclear waste will be driven here. That's tens of thousands of trucks from the entire country with one destination: Salzgitter, Lower-Saxony.

Enough money to solve homelessness multiple times over will be poured into one dot of a place. So close to a city with people remembering and retelling what was here. Especially with its past of mining iron ore, of which only a fraction of a percent has ever been dug out, I cannot believe that humans will leave this place behind, and when they do find it, there will be no message telling them to stop.

Our species has existed for 300,000 years. The first recorded civilization is around 10,000 years old, the burning of the library of Alexandria, which made humanity forget so much of ancient civilization, was not even two thousand years ago, and the dark ages ended 600 years ago. Not even 200 years ago, we still weren't finished with the industrial revolution, and only 80 years ago, one human lifetime, the first nuclear reactor was built. Most of all nuclear waste was produced in the past decades, yet here we are dumping it below the earth's outer crust, and making decisions for a period of time no living being could ever comprehend, only because we valued immediate reward over long term wellbeing.

Most of our history is forgotten, and the history that is known is always perceived through a miopic, contemporary lense. Yet in all we believe to understand about ourselves, no human, be they king or emperor, has ever been as greedy, as self-centered, as reckless as to make a decision for future generations for as long as we've done without even flinching. This underground nuclear waste facility stands as a monument, a time capsule for everything the future needs to know about humanity under capitalism.

The specific clay formation this facility is dug into has not changed within any measurable geological time. It's ideal for long term storage like this, because when closed off without any air gaps, all layers of stone and rubble and dirt artificially re-done, the nuclear waste is supposed to just stay within that blob of clay which was here before the dinosaurs were wiped out, and will be here once we are gone too.

After we've filled it up, there's no place in Germany for the other half of nuclear waste. What reasonable human could suggest continuing the energy production that lead to this waste in the first place, as if it was nothing?

“I don't believe in long-term nuclear waste warning messages” the leader of the nuclear waste storage facility continued. "I subscribe to the philosophy that we should ultimately forget about this place.”

She explained herself quite rationally, saying that any warning sign is at the end of the day a sign. Shutting everything down, not leaving anything to notice behind, except for a landscape indistinguishable from nature, would be ideal. She fantasized about closing it all down and growing green grass on top for a few minutes.

It was also her first time standing here, underground, at the actual site where nuclear waste will be stored, as in her years of managing this facility, often from afar in the name of the federal company for radioactive waste disposal, she was never underground. Unlike all the other people in white suits, she wasn't greeted by any of the workers down here.

She continued saying that no civilization before the industrial revolution was able to dig as deep as this nuclear waste will be stored. Once we were able to dig so deeply, we also had devices that could detect radioactivity. In that regard she stated that “We cannot take responsibility for future civilizations.”

While I see her logic, I disagree. There will be records of this place, no matter how far underground, it will never be indistinguishable from nature. Half of all of Germany's nuclear waste will be driven here. That's tens of thousands of trucks from the entire country with one destination: Salzgitter, Lower-Saxony.

Enough money to solve homelessness multiple times over will be poured into one dot of a place. So close to a city with people remembering and retelling what was here. Especially with its past of mining iron ore, of which only a fraction of a percent has ever been dug out, I cannot believe that humans will leave this place behind, and when they do find it, there will be no message telling them to stop.

Our species has existed for 300,000 years. The first recorded civilization is around 10,000 years old, the burning of the library of Alexandria, which made humanity forget so much of ancient civilization, was not even two thousand years ago, and the dark ages ended 600 years ago. Not even 200 years ago, we still weren't finished with the industrial revolution, and only 80 years ago, one human lifetime, the first nuclear reactor was built. Most of all nuclear waste was produced in the past decades, yet here we are dumping it below the earth's outer crust, and making decisions for a period of time no living being could ever comprehend, only because we valued immediate reward over long term wellbeing.

Most of our history is forgotten, and the history that is known is always perceived through a miopic, contemporary lense. Yet in all we believe to understand about ourselves, no human, be they king or emperor, has ever been as greedy, as self-centered, as reckless as to make a decision for future generations for as long as we've done without even flinching. This underground nuclear waste facility stands as a monument, a time capsule for everything the future needs to know about humanity under capitalism.

The specific clay formation this facility is dug into has not changed within any measurable geological time. It's ideal for long term storage like this, because when closed off without any air gaps, all layers of stone and rubble and dirt artificially re-done, the nuclear waste is supposed to just stay within that blob of clay which was here before the dinosaurs were wiped out, and will be here once we are gone too.

After we've filled it up, there's no place in Germany for the other half of nuclear waste. What reasonable human could suggest continuing the energy production that lead to this waste in the first place, as if it was nothing?

They chose this facility to be the long term nuclear waste storage, despite nowadays being in the middle of Germany, because back in the day it was right next to the border with the GDR. Like France building their nuclear reactors into an enclave within Belgium, it's always safe once it needs to be built in your backyard.

Now, we're storing nuclear waste at the heart of this country.

We had a meeting discussing its safety before and after the underground visit. Wherever we went, we were greeted by the old German miner's greeting “Glück auf!” literally meaning “may lodes of ore be opened” – not quite the timely statement as we hope that whatever is stored here is rather not opened any time soon.

The meetings were strange. There was this energy the room I couldn't quite put my finger on. The political party I represented here isn't quite known for their pro-nuclear stance, rather the opposite is the case: when the name of a former member of Bundestag from Die Linke fell, Victor Perli, the room went dead silent. “He made us sweat many times with his questions” the leader of the facility said. Interestingly enough, by pure coincidence, I met Victor Perli at his first public presentation since leaving the Bundestag less than a month earlier, and he gave me a quick brief about Konrad, allowing me to ask the hard hitting questions.

"I can understand why you don't trust us. Our past actions have provided reasons for this."

The leader of the facility said.

Victor Perli was also supposed to be here himself, but sadly had to cancel last minute, I'm sure the owners of this facility were glad about that, as it probably wouldn't have helped the positive energy in the room they tried to create. Yet the two representatives from the AG Schacht Konrad (Working Group Mine Konrad), a local activist organization that has been opposing their town being turned into long term nuclear waste storage for the past 40 years, heated up many debates too.

This whole event was lobbyism. They wanted Die Linke (The Left) to no longer oppose this facility and agree to it in case we enter the state parliament in the 2027 elections. Additionally, they wanted the now two representatives of the region who are now in the federal parliament (Bundestag), Cem Ince and Jorrit Bosch, both present, not hopefully not turn into a successor of Victor Perli. Since both once worked for Mr. Perli, that endeavor was lost before it started.

A few images showing the transformation of an average citizen of the overworld to a miner going down an elevator traveling four meters a second.

Underground, busses would be too large, but simple cars with seats for five people not big enough, so they've modified a truck to seat 18 people, which can be driven to any place within the huge underground tunnel system. This is how we navigate this future nuclear waste storage facility. There were no maps and little to no signs, these drivers just knew the place by heart.

To all of us visitors, it was closer to a rollercoaster ride. Many of us have driven uphill, I believe very few people drove 200 meters downhill inside of a cave. A terrifying experience. This underworld may seem lawless, but German road laws still applied.

What a ride!

A short while ago I was allowed to visit a long term nuclear waste storage facility, built to hold low and mid tier radioactive material for geological time (hundreds of thousands to a few million years).

I entered early in the morning and got into an elevator driving me 800 meters deep, with the complex tunnel system we toured going up to a kilometer down from the surface. I came up in the late afternoon a changed man due to what I've seen.

of several metres. Deformed, wedged together and rusting.

Now, 40 years later, water is leaking in everywhere. Once something is down here, it takes an enormous amount of effort to get it back up. Geological forces such as water, but also deformations, will find their way. Since much of it will probably emerge altered in its composition, as if pressed through a mangle or cutter, I don't think signs will help.

Perhaps warnings such as artefacts cast in resin (cf. amber), such as @ErikUden

@ErikUden

Thank you very much for your pictures and impressions.

In the 1990s, I once visited the Asse mine in my capacity as a youth representative (works council).

Since it was not an official tour for visitors such as politicians or environmental organisations, the whole thing turned out to be rather unvarnished. Even back then, hardly anyone believed that all the rubbish could be removed.

Thousands upon thousands of yellow barrels, some of them dumped from heights