After a good six decades of nuclear energy, the last three nuclear power plants in Germany went offline late on Saturday evening. From midnight, electricity production in the Isar 2 reactors in Bavaria, Neckarwestheim 2 in Baden-Württemberg and Emsland in Lower Saxony by nuclear fission was no longer permitted under the nationwide Atomic Energy Act. Bavaria’s Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) wants to continue operating nuclear power plants under state responsibility and is demanding a change in the law.
According to the operator, the first thing to do was disconnect from the network at 10:37 p.m. in Meiler Emsland. This was followed by Isar 2 at 11:52 p.m. and finally Neckarwestheim 2 at 11:59 p.m. “The chapter is now closed,” said the boss of the Emsland operator RWE, Markus Krebber, in a statement. “Now it is important to use all our strength to push ahead with the construction of hydrogen-capable gas-fired power plants as quickly as possible in addition to renewable energies, so that the security of supply is guaranteed if Germany ideally wants to phase out coal in 2030.”
“We work according to the law and it is clear that power operation from April 16 would be a criminal offense,” said the federal chief nuclear supervisor, head of the department for nuclear safety and radiation protection in the Ministry of the Environment, Gerrit Niehaus, the German press -Agency.
A good 62 years ago, Germany’s first nuclear power plant went into commercial operation in Kahl, Lower Franconia. After the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011, then Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) pushed through the final phase-out of the technology in Germany. Actually, the piles should have been taken off the grid at the end of last year. Because of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, the traffic light coalition of her successor Olaf Scholz (SPD) decided after weeks of discussion in autumn to let the three reactors continue to run over the winter until mid-April.
With the exit, a new energy era begins: opponents of nuclear power celebrated the historic step on Saturday with festivals in Berlin and elsewhere. Several hundred people came to a “switch-off party” in Neckarwestheim, and the Bund Naturschutz and Greenpeace also organized a “nuclear phase-out party” in Munich. In the Lingen nuclear power plant in Lower Saxony, hundreds of opponents of nuclear power demonstrated against the level there organized by the Bund Naturschutz and Greenpeace a “nuclear phase-out festival”. In the Lingen nuclear power plant in Lower Saxony, hundreds of opponents of nuclear power demonstrated against the fuel element factory ANF, which is also located there and belongs to the French Framatome group, and also demanded its closure.
Dismay at the exit, however, prevailed at the Isar 2 nuclear power plant in Essenbach, Bavaria. According to the chairman of the Preussen-Elektra group, Guido Knott, the shutdown is an emotional moment for the employees of the kiln: “Today, after 50 years, electricity production from nuclear energy at Preussen-Elektra ends I was also personally very affected.”
The group had previously explained the process in detail, which is practically the same for all three reactors: After disconnecting from the power grid, the reactor should be switched off within about fifteen minutes. After that it is “cold down”. This means that the temperature in the system is reduced to ambient temperature within around twelve hours. About nine hours after the shutdown, steam should no longer be visible over the cooling tower.
Internationally, however, it is not the first farewell to nuclear energy: Italy already abandoned nuclear energy in the wake of the Chernobyl reactor catastrophe (1986). Other countries take different paths. In Belgium, nuclear power plants should be able to continue running at least until the end of 2035. The Swiss nuclear power plants may be operated as long as they are safe; however, the construction of new facilities is prohibited. Spain’s leftist government plans to shut down all of the country’s nuclear power plants between 2027 and 2035.
The challenges in dealing with the high-risk technology remain in Germany even after the departure from nuclear power. First of all, the piles have to be dismantled as quickly as possible. The Atomic Energy Act has the regulation that the nuclear power plants are to be dismantled immediately, said nuclear supervisor Niehaus. “On the one hand, that means pushing ahead with the dismantling approval process, but also taking the first permissible steps towards dismantling.”
According to the Baden-Württemberg operator EnBW, a strategy for the dismantling of their nuclear power plants had already been developed in 2012. All dismantling permits would already be available. The Isar 2 operator, the Eon company Preussen-Elektra, on the other hand, expects the license to be granted in the coming months and that dismantling could then begin in early 2024.
And then there is the question of what to do with the radioactive waste? “We have used nuclear power in our country for about three generations, producing waste that will remain dangerous for 30,000 generations,” said Environment Minister Steffi Lemke (Greens). “We pass this responsibility on to our grandchildren, great-grandchildren and many more generations to come.” Germany is in the middle of searching for a repository, which is a complex task for society as a whole.
However, cross shots came from Bavaria: The Bavarian Prime Minister Markus Söder from the conservative CDU sister party CSU wants to continue to operate nuclear power plants such as the Isar 2 reactor, which was shut down on Saturday night, under state responsibility and is therefore demanding that the federal government change the Atomic Energy Act.
One demands a separate state responsibility for the continued operation of nuclear power, said Söder (CSU) of the “Bild am Sonntag” (BamS) according to the advance report. “Until the crisis ends and the transition to renewables doesn’t succeed, we need to use every form of energy by the end of the decade.”
Bavaria also wants to be a pioneer in research into nuclear fusion and the construction of its own research reactor, Söder confirmed to “BamS”. This could be done in cooperation with other countries. In addition, there is an urgent need for a national research strategy for the usability of nuclear waste. We owe it to future generations not only to discuss a repository in the distant future, but also to develop innovative plans for a responsible and technological solution.
In an interview with “Focus online” that was published on Thursday, Söder had criticized the shutdown of the last three nuclear power plants in Germany and explained that it made no sense at this point for pragmatic reasons. When asked how he still wanted to stop this process, he had said that if the Union won the next federal election, “there should be an extension of nuclear energy.” A new state parliament will be elected in Bavaria in October.