How far have we come today?

Where the two repositories will be constructed is decided as part of a prescribed multi-stage selection process – the Sectoral Plan for Deep Geological Repositories. The Federal Government has the lead in this process; safety takes priority in site selection.

The first stage of the process was completed at the end of 2011. The aim was to identify areas in Switzerland that would fundamentally be suitable as geological siting regions (see previous question). In the second stage, Nagra will investigate and compare the geological siting regions and propose a narrowed-down selection. The details of the repository projects will also be concretised. Siting areas for the surface facility will be identified together with the public and the authorities in the siting regions. The safety authorities, the Federal Government and the Cantons support and monitor the work. In Stage 3, Nagra will further investigate and compare the remaining geological siting regions and propose those that, in their opinion, are most suitable – one for low- and intermediate-level waste and one for high-level waste. The authorities also review this work and the siting regions continue to participate. At the end of the process, the Federal Council, Parliament and, ultimately, the Swiss voters (optional referendum) decide whether the selected sites will be licensed. The decision will be made in around ten years.
her licences can be granted for the selected sites. This decision is expected for around the year 2020.

The three stages of the repository site selection process.