The special thing about this meeting was that the conference has to organise itself, according to the law. A working group consisting of selected participants was formed at an initial conference event in October 2020. It performed the preliminary work for this conference in terms of content and organisation.

Support from the office

It has been supported in its organisational work by an office consisting of BASE employees (Federal Office for the Safety of Nuclear Waste Management). “The meeting, the content and the chairperson were good, the technology largely worked well and the department made every effort to support us,” were the comments made by the preparation group at the start of the third day of the conference.
Most participants viewed the conference overall as a positive experience in a survey conducted at the end of the meeting. “BASE would like to express its respect for the members of the preparation group. They’ve drawn up an impressive programme with a great deal of commitment,” said Christoph Hamann, the press spokesperson at the Federal Office.

Contributions are being documented

The goal of the conference is to publicly discuss the interim report, which the company entrusted with the search for a repository site, the federal company for radioactive waste disposal (BGE mbH), had presented at the end of September 2020. The participants were able to contribute many types of information and extensive specialist criticism on this and other topics in the search for a repository site. All the contributions are being documented and will soon be accessible on the information platform related to the search for a repository site. BGE mbH has to accommodate the final results of the conference in its ongoing work.
The participants at the conference decided on which ideas needed to be discussed themselves. Here are the major results: deciding on rules of procedure. The conference expressed the wish that a similar format for participation should be made available after the end of the discussion meetings. The second discussion meeting at the conference, which was originally set for April 2021, will be postponed to the third date reserved for June and the last discussion meeting will be held in August.

Modern participation

Compensation for loss of earnings was also requested for the members of the preparation group. BASE will discuss how these suggestions can be implemented with the conference working group and those involved in the search for the repository site. The members of the working group, who are to prepare the coming discussion meeting, were also newly elected from the group of participants.
Hamann commented, “Overall, we can say that digital formats cannot fully replace all the opportunities at traditional meetings attended by people. However, the standards for modern participation can be completely met in this way. This conference has helped us develop ways of holding digital discussions and launch discussion forums with as many as 200 people, something that has not been achieved in the past. Once again it’s true that these kinds of formats open up opportunities that are not available at meetings attended by people, beyond the pandemic situation too – and prevent costly travel and overnight accommodation.”

The background

The federal company for radioactive waste disposal (BGE mbH) had published its sub-areas interim report at the end of September 2020 and the participants exchanged ideas on this – the report determined areas that should be excluded from the ongoing search because of their lack of geological suitability in the view of BGE and named those that should continue to be considered for the time being.
BASE is involving the public in this search and is providing organisational support for the sub-areas conference. The participants independently determine the content and organisation. The German parliament envisaged the sub-areas conference in the procedure to enable participation and allow the public to influence the initial results in the procedure at an early stage.