Repository Konrad Source: picture alliance/dpa | Julian Stratenschulte

The responsibilities under mining and water law for the Konrad mine will be transferred to BASE once the nuclear supervisory authority has approved its commissioning following an overall acceptance inspection. The responsibility for the ERAM will be transferred to BASE as soon as the current licensing procedure for decommissioning has been completed. Following the final siting decision by federal law, BASE as the licensing authority will be responsible for the repository for high-level radioactive waste from the very beginning. The tasks pertaining to mining and water law for the Asse project, on the other hand, will remain with the state of Lower Saxony.

Repository Morsleben Source: picture alliance / dpa | Jens Wolf

Mining law refers to the legal provisions concerning mineral resources and mining. Repositories in deep geological strata are mines in the technical sense. Therefore, to a large extent, they are also treated as such under the law. BASE's area of responsibility will include the licensing of mining activities in the repositories as well as the monitoring of operational safety and the occupational health and safety of employees. This concerns, for example, regulations on working hours, or the requirements for technical facilities such as the ropeway system for transporting persons or materials through a shaft. The operator of the repository, the Bundesgesellschaft für Endlagerung (BGE mbH), must submit their plans to BASE for review. If all legal requirements are met, BASE will issue a licence, and the planned measures can subsequently be carried out.

Examination of the drinking water Source: picture alliance / Julian Stratenschulte/dpa

Water law protects water as a natural resource. In the course of mining activities for the construction and operation of repositories, shafts and drifts may be driven into the subsurface. Some of these might penetrate layers in which groundwater flows. Water entering via such pathways must be collected, cleaned and discharged into water bodies at the surface.

BASE will examine all repository projects that may have an impact on the quality of groundwater and other water bodies. Only if no negative impacts on water quality are to be expected will it grant approval.