• Technology

• Health

• Environment

• Project Co-ordinator: Dr. phil. Georg Kamp, M.A.

• Duration: 10/08–9/10

• Funding: VGB Powertech, Essen

• Project Report by Dr. Georg Kamp in “Technikfolgenabschätzung – Theorie und Praxis (TATuP)” (2/2009) (German)

• Further Information on “Energy”

In the public and political debate on nuclear power it is constantly being mentioned that the question of final repository has not yet been solved and that the usage of nuclear power therefore could not be justified. The project will critically reconstruct and test the applied standards and criteria for radiation protection and the physical-technical bases of the designs for the final storage of low-, medium- and high-level radioactive waste and burned out fuel assemblies that are stipulated for a long-term security. Furthermore, the members will work out a survey over the strategies, concepts and rules that are established in the most important countries that operate nuclear power plants. Since there also has been a controversy on the transports of high-level radioactive waste, the project group should focus on special questions connected with this desideratum, too.
On the basis of this exploration the project group will develop rationally justified criteria for the evaluation of these approaches concerning technical requirements as well as those requirements that derive from the necessity of protecting man and nature. These reflexions necessarily must comprise juridical, economic and ethical reflexions: An adequate evaluation of the different options presupposes a juristical examination of the national and transnational regulations, the options are to be evaluated by economical means, and the question of long-term responsibility needs to be answered from an ethical point of view.
The results from the normative examination and those contributed by the physical and engineering sciences will lead to a concise assessment of all relevant options and to recommendations justified on the basis of transdisciplinary acceptable arguments.

Energy