by Wyoming Liberty Group

Sometimes, to understand something locally, you need to look globally. Sometimes, you have to go all the way to Germany.

Such is the case for us in Wyoming, as powerful forces continue to push for making the Cowboy State a cradle-to-grave operation for all things nuclear, including storing spent nuclear fuel from reactor manufacturing.

Why Germany? Well, for one, the folks in Lower Saxony, Germany—about 140 miles from Berlin—tried to do what some Wyoming legislators have pushed us to consider doing here in Wyoming. They turned the area into storage for nuclear waste—and the consequences were devastating.

The powers that be in Germany turned what was known as Asse II, a former salt mine, into a spent fuel geological repository—basically, a big deep hole—for low and intermediate radioactive waste back in the mid-1960s. The salt mine also became a site for some much more lethal plutonium. The operator sealed the caverns within the mine with thick walls.

The thinking back then was that pits for rock salt would serve as the best way to store the nuclear waste. When the salt mine was shut down in 1964, the idea at first was to experiment with it as a repository for nuclear waste a few years later. But what started as an experiment became the de facto practice whereby German facilities sent their nuclear waste there. This went on for years.

Apparently, the experiment was flawed.

In 1988, the state-owned site operator discovered a problem. Radioactive brine was leaking through the walls of the mine.

But, compounding the problem, the operator didn't bother telling the public about the leak. That is, not until two decades later, in 2008, when the media got wind of the problem and officials admitted, finally, that there was a radioactive leak.

Suffice it to say, it was considered an epic scandal, not to mention a huge environmental disaster.

But a spokesman for the site operator at the time told the media that they "did not consider that the leaks were worth a declaration to the press. We did not have the feeling that the public would be interested in knowing that radioactive brine is leaking in Asse II."

How do you say that with a straight face?

At least one German government official acknowledged: "There is nothing secure to be found in the facility. This is the most problematic facility in Europe."

By then, the site had accumulated about 126,000 tons of waste. Thousands of barrels had fallen and were rusted—many even before they were put into the pit. Among the many questions was how extensive was the damage, including the extent to which the leaking nuclear waste contaminated ground water. Part of the problem was that the mine's caverns were sealed shut by thick walls and so it was unknown what condition the waste was in.

Answers since then have been hard to come by, in part because there was uncertainty about how to deal with the more than 100,000 tons of nuclear waste. How could deteriorated barrels even be transported without creating more danger?

There was less uncertainty about the cost of the cleanup: It was estimated to cost many billions of euros. But the German government, which hasn't tried to create another geological repository for nuclear waste, has decided that the only thing to do is to figure out a way to remove the radioactive waste from the mine. It was, they concluded, the only safe thing to do.

But the cleanup is hardly a cakewalk. Indeed, it's still being planned. The plan is to use robots, controlled remotely, to gather the toxic stuff, seal the nuclear waste in containers and then store them above ground. This cleanup operation requires the creation of a shaft to retrieve the nuclear material and to build a storage facility above ground.

Who will foot the bill? Yep, you guessed it: German taxpayers.

The recovery operation, as they're calling it, is planned to start in about eight years, in 2033.

And they expect it to take decades to complete.

This is stunning, if not instructive, for us in Wyoming. There is and has been talk for years about using canisters to store nuclear waste above ground here. But all of that talk is a prelude to what is considered the long-term fix for storing nuclear waste in the United States: Finding a community willing to serve as a deep geological repository for toxic nuclear waste.

Sound familiar?