Germany has made the first step in finding a final resting place for its nuclear waste in what will be an intricate, drawn-out process over the coming decade. An initial report by the Federal Company for Radioactive Waste Disposal indicates where a permanent repository for high-level radioactive waste could be located. With its publication, some regions will sigh a breath of relief because they have been exempt from the process according to geological criteria, but locations in 54 percent of Germany remain in the running as the potentially safest place for the country’s nuclear waste.

More than half of Germany is made of bedrock formations that would be suitable to house an underground disposal site for nuclear waste, the Federal Company for Radioactive Waste Disposal (BGE) has found, according to CLEW.

Following an intricate process that is to ensure maximum transparency and public acceptance, the BGE published an initial report indicating that 90 areas, stretching over 54 percent of Germany, are possible locations for a radioactive waste repository that is to last for 1 million years, according to geological data. “With its geological conditions, Germany is very well suited for finding a site to store highly radioactive waste,” BGE CEO Stefan Studt said at a press conference.

The nation’s 27,000 cubic metres of nuclear waste – accumulated after producing electricity in nuclear reactors over 62 years – could find its final resting place in 15 out of the 16 German states. The only large connected areas that have now been excluded from the process are located in the very west and the very south of the country.