The METIENS project, which is carried out by the Federal Office for the Safety of Nuclear Waste Management (BASE), investigates the fundamental challenges of a site selection process that is characterized by high variability with respect to host rocks, safety concepts, and repository concepts, as in the German case. The presentation will provide examples of unavoidable subjective decisions in the evaluation of safety.

As national regulator within the German siting process, the Federal Office for the Safety of Nuclear Waste Management (BASE) performs own research on, e.g., geo-scientific questions, methodological aspects of the implementation of the site selection process, and public participation aspects. The results support BASE to fulfil its task according to state-of-the-art science and technology, ensure highest safety-level and are also relevant to other stakeholders of the siting process.