General Project Description

The Gorleben exploration mine is situated in the community of Gorleben in the district of Lüchow-Dannenberg in Lower Saxony, about 2 km south of the Elbe River. The two shafts Gorleben 1 and 2 with depths of 933 m and 840 m respectively are situated in the centre of the Gorleben salt dome, which is approximately 14 km long and 4 km wide, and has been explored with regard to its suitability to host a final repository for all types of radioactive waste. The top of the salt dome (salt wash surface) is about 250 m below the surface, the salt dome base lies at a depth of between 3,200 m and 3,400 m.

Several levels have been excavated in the exploration mine. In addition to the actual exploration level 840 m below the surface (i.e. 820 m below sea level), where the geoscientific and geotechnical exploration was carried out until the beginning of the moratorium on October 1, 2000 (exploration suspended), further "technical" levels were excavated at depths of 820 m (return air level), 880 m (haulage level) and 930 m (shaft undercut). These technical levels are all limited to the vicinity of the shafts. In total, about 7 km of drifts and galleries (with a volume of approx. 234,000 m³) have been excavated, and geological and geotechnical boreholes with an overall length of about 16,000 m have been drilled.

Of the five exploration areas originally planned in the north-eastern part of the salt dome, only exploration area 1 (EB 1) and the infrastructure area near the shafts (workshops, work and storage rooms) have been completed so far.

In addition to the two shaft hoisting plants and their corresponding surface installations such as shaft hall, loading bay and personnel walkway, the 28-ha grounds include an office building and a building housing changing/shower facilities, a store with workshops, a drill core storeroom as well as further technical installations. The salt dump for the mined salt is situated about 1 km from the mine site. So far, about 600,000 t of salt have been deposited here.

Until today, there is no suitability statement for the Gorleben site. This can only be issued after the ministry of the environment of Lower Saxony as competent government agency and licensing authority has approved the site plan. A precondition for the conclusion of the plan approval process is the completion of the underground exploration and its analysis as well as the completion of a site-specific safety analysis.