Annual media conference 2015

Thomas Ernst, Chief Executive Officer, stated that, following the announcement of the siting proposals in January 2015, Nagra is now entering an important phase of field work aimed at acquiring key data for the general licence applications for the deep geological repositories. In his closing words, he addressed the responsibility borne by the Cantons as the principal owners of the nuclear power plants, highlighting the need to work together to find convincing solutions to what is a task of great national importance.

Markus Fritschi, Member of the Executive Board, explained the procedure for submitting exploration applications for deep boreholes. 7 to 8 applications will be submitted for each siting region before the end of 2015, but work on drilling will begin only after the decision of the Federal Council on Nagra’s siting proposals, which is expected for 2017.

In-depth investigations will begin in autumn/winter 2015/16 with 3D seismic measurement campaigns. Tim Vietor, Head of the Field Investigations Section, explained that teams would be underway in the Jura Ost siting region from around July or August to obtain permission from the affected landowners. If everything goes according to plan, the seismic measurements will begin in the Jura Ost region in October 2015. The work is expected to last around three months. Following a brief pause over the Christmas vacation, the survey teams will then move to the Zürich Nordost siting region, where measurements will be carried out over a period of around three weeks.

The Nagra media conference is an annual event held to report on upcoming work activities.