German Nuclear Forum Sounds Warning On Need For Long-Term Skills And Training

23 May (NucNet): Germany’s nuclear workforce will require “appropriate skills and training in the long-run”, which will make the issue of retaining nuclear expertise even more relevant to the German state as it takes over responsibility for the intermediate storage and final disposal of radioactive waste, Ralf Güldner, president of the German Atomic Forum told the 2017 Annual Meeting on Nuclear Technology in Berlin last week. Mr Güldner said up to 4,000 nuclear industry employees in Germany could soon be transferred to a number of newly formed public nuclear waste management companies. Together with government employees in other areas of nuclear technology like regulation and research, this means that nearly one sixth of Germany’s more than 30,000-strong nuclear workforce will be transferred to the public sector. Mr Güldner said Germany will need an “appropriate” public debate on the subject. Under legislation that came into force in December 2016, the German government assumed responsibility for the intermediate storage and final disposal of radioactive waste. The transfer process ended earlier this month when the government reached an agreement with the utility-owned nuclear services company GNS on transferring GNS’s interim storage activities to the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety (BMUB). In March 2017, the BMUB and GNS established the joint venture company BGZ for this purpose. BGZ will start its interim storage activities on 1 August 2017 at the Ahaus, Gorleben and Essen facilities. In another element of the transfer, BMUB last month transferred the responsibilities of DBE, the company which builds and operates waste repositories, to BGE, the federal-owned radioactive waste disposal company created in July 2016. Also transferred to BGE were parts of the federal office for radiation protection (BfS), and Asse GmbH, the operator of the Asse II repository, a former salt mine in Lower Saxony. BGE’s main job is to find possible sites, in addition to the existing interim facility at Gorleben, for radioactive waste. Other tasks will include the operation and maintenance of the Asse II, Konrad and Morsleben repositories.