The scientific warnings concerning atomic waste storage in the Gorleben salt deposit have been known for more than 25 years. There is no impervious barrier between the salt and the water reaching the surface. Radioactive isotopes cannot be prevented from penetrating into the biosphere.

One should also be able to expect of a state premier that he read the 1992 report by the Final Storage Search Working Group (AK End) convened by the federal government. Because of the long half-lives of the radioactive isotopes the AK End recommends safe depositing for at least a million years. "Herr Wulff ignores scientific facts and at the general public"s cost speaks up exclusively for the financial interests of the atomic industry," summarises the BI spokesman. All attempts to hold atomic waste in salt have so far failed dramatically. It is not even known yet whether salt is suited as a deposit medium. "The premier should at last be woken from his atomic dreams by the scandal of the "Asse trial mine" near Wolfenbüttel in his federal state," the BI spokesman demands. "The atomic waste deposited in salt there is being flooded and the radiation is threatening to contaminate the biosphere. The premier is tenaciously keeping quiet about that, preferring to lobby for a further escalation of the atomic waste problems."

Francis Althoff 05843 986789 0170 9394684