On 22 February 1977 the state government of Lower Saxony named the salt dome at Gorleben as the only site for a nuclear waste repository. Protest grew in the region and beyond. On 3 May 1980 about 5,000 opponents occupied the drilling site and proclaimed the Republik Freies Wendland, the Free Republic of Wendland. In 2013 a law restarted the search from the beginning. A commission of scientists and representatives of social groups worked from 2014 to 2016. The Site Selection Act of 2017 requires a partizipatives, wissenschaftsbasiertes, transparentes, selbsthinterfragendes und lernendes Verfahren, a procedure that is participatory, based on science, transparent, self-questioning and learning. In September 2020 Gorleben dropped out of the search. The law aims for a decision in 2031. In late 2022, documents of the responsible federal company estimated that the search could last until 2046, or in another scenario until 2068.