Rösti offers compensation to region hosting nuclear waste repository

Swiss Energy Minister Albert Rösti said the Nördlich Lägern region should receive compensation for hosting a planned deep geological repository for radioactive waste, SRF reported. He made the statement at an information event for residents in Fisibach in the canton of Aargau.

Rösti said the region was performing an important task for Switzerland and expressed hope that it would continue to develop. He stressed that safety was the highest priority.

The federal government also wants to involve local residents in the process, Rösti said, describing it as transparent and gradual. He said public discussions should give people the opportunity to obtain information, ask questions and present different perspectives.

Several hundred people attended the event. Only a small proportion of the roughly 170 questions submitted were answered in front of the audience.

The cantons of Aargau and Zurich said they would monitor the project critically but constructively. Aargau’s Landammann Stephan Attiger said the two affected cantons had joined forces to accompany the project. Zurich Construction Director Martin Neukom highlighted the close cooperation between the cantons.

Martin Kistler, head of Germany’s Waldshut district, also called for involvement. He said the project imposed a burden on German neighbours and that the district wanted to participate in the framework licence application. Kistler said the German region was also contributing and indirectly claimed that it should receive compensation. The national border should not matter, he said, because the decisive factor was the region bearing the burden.

The planned repository is to be built in the Nördlich Lägern area northwest of Bülach in the canton of Zurich. Radioactive waste would be sealed in rock several hundred metres underground. Access to the repository is planned in Haberstal, in the municipality of Stadel. Facilities for packaging the waste would be built at the interim storage site in Würenlingen in the canton of Aargau.

The National Cooperative for the Disposal of Radioactive Waste, Nagra, submitted the framework licence application to the federal government in November 2024. A decision on the location is expected in 2030, followed by a decision from the Swiss Federal Parliament. Rösti said he expected a national referendum in 2033, with the first waste potentially stored from 2050.