The National Cooperative for the Disposal of Radioactive Waste (Nagra) opened its drill core archive in Mellingen today. From the first Nagra boreholes drilled in the 1980s to the last drill core recovered in 2022: thousands of drill cores document the last 200 million years of Northern Switzerland’s geological history.
“Much of what we have learned is based on these rock samples,” says Nagra CEO Matthias Braun. Nagra will submit their findings, documented on many thousands of pages, to the federal authorities on 19th November – as part of the general licence application for the deep geological repository in the Nördlich Lägern siting region. “We have a precise picture of the underground and the geological history and are ready for the next phase of the project of the century of deep geological disposal,” adds Braun.
Nagra is also opening its geological treasure to the public. “Our archive is intended to serve as an interface between science and society and to facilitate dialogue between these two spheres,” Braun envisions.
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