iMAGINE - Can we save ourselves THE repository?

Germany is at a crossroads, on the one hand with regard to a possible future for nuclear energy, and on the other hand with regard to the final disposal of residual waste and the associated site selection process. The massive postponement of the standard setting, communicated some time ago, to 2046 at the earliest, opens up new opportunities to test technologies that could possibly make the final repository and thus the entire site selection process obsolete. With iMAGINE, the University of Liverpool, funded by the Royal Society of Engineers, has presented the most far-reaching development currently available and demonstrated its scientific feasibility.

The presentation will highlight iMAGINE's strategic development plan and the resulting opportunities for Germany. The special features of the innovative approach will be analysed and the opportunities and risks of the technology discussed. Finally, a development and demonstration programme will be presented for discussion with the aim of providing facts for a future knowledge-based, ideology-free political decision.