The newspaper taz reported on 4 October 2026 that Schleswig-Holstein has cleared construction of an interim store for low-activity and intermediate-activity waste on the grounds of the shut Krümmel nuclear station in Geesthacht. Tobias Goldschmidt, the state environment minister from the Greens, delivered the required permit the previous Friday. The environment ministry said the building will take radioactive waste arising as the plant is taken apart, but only material that does not give off heat, and that those materials are later destined for the Schacht Konrad repository at Salzgitter.
Goldschmidt said that, with the store permit, every nuclear-law approval required at Krümmel has now been granted, and that the state's exit from nuclear power remains on its timetable. He called the highest possible safety his absolute priority while the plants are dismantled. BGZ, the federal company for interim storage, will operate the store. About eight thousand tonnes of radioactive waste from the Krümmel station are to be placed there. Because that waste is already on the grounds, radiation exposure outside the site does not change, and the supervisory authority will check that limits set in the Strahlenschutzgesetz are not exceeded.
The ministry said BGE, the federal company for disposal, expects Schacht Konrad to begin operation in the 2030s, so waste from Krümmel cannot be sent there until then. Dismantling at Krümmel is scheduled to be finished by 2037. The group BUND has repeatedly warned of health risks for nearby residents even after the reactor stopped, and says it will keep following the procedure. Ole Eggers, BUND state director in Schleswig-Holstein, told Tagesschau that wastewater will continue to be checked for radioactivity.
The permit completes the nuclear approvals at Krümmel and keeps dismantling waste that gives off no heat on the site until Schacht Konrad can receive it in the 2030s.
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