India Plans Nationwide Nuclear Workforce Push to Support 100 GW Expansion

Search Scope Significantly Reduced

The Federal Company for Radioactive Waste Disposal, known by its German acronym BGE, announced that its ongoing preliminary safety analyses have cut the territory still under investigation from approximately 25% of Germany's land area to below 5%. The organisation attributed the reduction to a step-by-step scientific assessment process that evaluates sub-areas against geoscientific weighing criteria defined in national legislation.

BGE Chair Iris Graffunder described the progress as keeping the repository search on schedule. "In the space of a year, our scientists have reduced the area that is still to be investigated — which accounted for around a quarter of the country's total land area — to less than 5%," she said, adding that the search is becoming progressively more specific.

Methodology and Current Status

The current phase of work draws on 90 sub-areas covering 54% of Germany's surface that BGE identified in September 2020 as potentially geologically suitable. From that starting point, the organisation applies four sequential assessment steps under what it terms "representative preliminary safety analyses." As of the latest update, 36 sub-areas remain under active investigation.

Areas still in contention span several regions: southern Germany, eastern Germany, and the north and north-west of the country. A former salt mine at Gorleben, once considered a leading candidate, was excluded from the process at the outset of the current search framework.

What the Repository Would Hold

The eventual facility is intended to permanently store approximately 1,900 waste containers. Although these represent only 5% of Germany's total volume of nuclear waste by quantity, they account for 99% of the country's total radioactivity from nuclear waste, underscoring the critical safety requirements attached to the site selection process.

Key Milestones and Timeline

BGE intends to submit a proposal of between five and ten candidate sites for surface exploration to the Federal Office for the Safety of Nuclear Waste Management before the end of 2027. The organisation stated that further narrowing of the candidate areas will continue through that deadline.

• Proposal of 5–10 sites for surface exploration to the Federal Office for the Safety of Nuclear Waste Management: by end of 2027
• Final site selection decision: 2031
• Target date for repository to begin operations: 2050

Regulatory and Public Participation Framework

The search is governed by legislation requiring both the highest achievable safety standards and full public participation, particularly in regions where candidate sites are located. BGE noted that its latest publication is intended to ensure early-stage transparency for communities across Germany. The company expressed confidence that the ongoing procedure will identify a suitable permanent disposal location for the country's high-level radioactive waste.

Agreement Overview

The US Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) has entered into a technical assistance agreement with Turkish oil and gas refiner TÜPRAŞ to carry out a structured, approximately one-year study examining US small modular reactor (SMR) technologies. The study will assess technical maturity, licensing status, safety and security frameworks, fuel supply chain requirements, economic performance, and potential industrial applications of candidate SMR designs.

The evaluation will also measure technologies against environmental sustainability criteria, covering resource efficiency, waste management, and water consumption. Its ultimate output will be a roadmap guiding TÜPRAŞ's assessment of whether and how SMRs could be integrated into its operations as the company works toward a carbon-neutrality goal by 2050.

Supply Chain and Fuel Cycle Scope

For nuclear supply-chain professionals, the explicit inclusion of fuel supply chain requirements in the study's scope is notable. The work is to be carried out by US companies, consistent with USTDA's mandate to fund technical activities that accelerate infrastructure development in emerging markets while creating export opportunities for US goods and services.

• Technical maturity and licensing status of US SMR designs
• Safety, security, and regulatory framework assessment
• Fuel supply chain requirements
• Economic performance and industrial application potential
• Environmental sustainability criteria including waste management and water use

Complementary TÜNAŞ Agreement

USTDA noted that the TÜPRAŞ agreement complements a separate arrangement signed in September with TÜNAŞ, the state-owned company established to advance Turkey's nuclear development. Under that agreement, USTDA is funding technical assistance to develop the regulatory, institutional, and financial roadmap required for Turkish private-sector companies to deploy SMR technology. Together, the two agreements address both the commercial demand side — through an industrial end-user — and the enabling policy and regulatory environment.

Turkey's Broader Nuclear Ambitions

Turkey's energy minister announced last November a target to deploy 5 GW of SMR capacity by 2050, in addition to 12 larger reactors. The government has indicated it expects private-sector investment and development to play a central role in meeting these targets.

Turkey's first nuclear power plant is currently under construction at Akkuyu in the southern Mersin province. The facility comprises four VVER-1200 reactors being built by Rosatom under a build-own-operate model. The SMR programme represents a distinct, parallel track oriented toward US technology and private-sector participation, broadening Turkey's nuclear supply-chain relationships beyond the existing Rosatom project.