According to Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens), two of the last three German nuclear power plants should be available as reserves after the turn of the year until mid-April 2023. The stress test for the security of the power supply shows that the Isar 2 power plants in Bavaria and Neckarwestheim in Baden-Württemberg can, if necessary, make an additional contribution to the power grid in southern Germany in the winter of 2022/23, Habeck said in Berlin today.
The second grid stress test came to the conclusion “that crisis situations in the electricity system that lasted by the hour in the winter of 22/23 are very unlikely, but cannot be completely ruled out at the moment,” the statement said.
According to Habeck, despite the transfer of two nuclear power plants to a temporary reserve, all three nuclear power plants in Germany are scheduled to go offline at the end of 2022. “We are sticking to the phase-out of nuclear power, as regulated in the Atomic Energy Act,” he said in Berlin. “New fuel elements are not loaded and in mid-April 2023 the reserve will also be over.” Nuclear power remains a high-risk technology. “And the highly radioactive waste burdens tens of future generations. You can’t play with nuclear power.”
Union and FDP for continued operation
Because Russia is supplying less gas and in view of the sharp rise in energy prices, discussions have been going on in Germany for months about a possible longer operation of the three remaining nuclear power plants in Germany. It was originally intended that the remaining Meiler Isar 2 in Lower Bavaria, Emsland in Lower Saxony and Neckarwestheim 2 in Baden-Württemberg would go offline at the end of the year.
Previously, not only the opposition Union, but also the FDP, which is part of the government, had campaigned for the continued operation of the nuclear power plants. FDP boss and Finance Minister Christian Lindner called for the continued operation of the three nuclear power plants that are still producing. “In these times, all possibilities should be used to reduce the electricity price for people and companies,” said Lindner of the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”. For the Greens, on the other hand, rejection of nuclear power is part of their political DNA.