In view of the energy crisis, can the last nuclear reactors perhaps continue to run beyond the turn of the year? The Greens no longer rule that out either – but it can only be for a very limited time and they set a condition.
Stuttgart (dpa / lsw) – In the event of an impending energy shortage in southern Germany, the Greens in the Baden-Württemberg state parliament would also be open to the temporary continued operation of German nuclear power plants. “In this emergency situation, my party is struggling with a short-term bridging operation of the nuclear power plants. This is not an easy situation for us,” said parliamentary group leader Andreas Schwarz of the German Press Agency. The overarching goal is to get people through the winter well. “We are therefore open to all sensible solutions to secure the energy supply,” said Schwarz.
The result of the ongoing stress test by Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck (Greens) will be decisive. “If he comes to a new rating in the fall, we’ll use that as a guide,” said Schwarz. “So this is not a decision based on a gut feeling, but is made on the basis of facts.” Nevertheless, the position of the Greens remains that nuclear power is a risky technology. “Germany has therefore rightly decided to phase out nuclear energy,” said the Greens parliamentary group leader. Nothing will change in the fundamentally critical attitude of his party.
The Prime Minister of Baden-Württemberg, Winfried Kretschmann (Greens), has repeatedly shown himself open to letting the three remaining nuclear power plants run a little longer than just until the end of the year. But he also refers to Habeck’s stress test for network stability.
A debate has been going on for months about an energy crisis in Germany due to the massive cutbacks in gas supplies from Russia and the lack of alternatives to date. In view of this, the Federal Ministry of Economics, which is led by the Greens, ordered a stress test to clarify how the energy supply can be guaranteed in winter. Scenarios are calculated, including those with and without nuclear energy.
According to the applicable Atomic Energy Act, the remaining German reactors in Neckarwestheim (Heilbronn district), Isar 2 in Bavaria and Emsland in Lower Saxony would have to go offline after December 31, 2022. An amendment to the law in the Bundestag is also needed for the so-called stretching operation, i.e. the continued use of the current fuel rods. The background for the stretching operation are the spent fuel rods, which were no longer renewed due to the foreseeable closure.
Critics of nuclear power warn of incalculable safety risks with only very low energy yields because the reactors are more than 30 years old. Environmental groups have therefore already announced lawsuits if the nuclear phase-out does not take place by the end of the year.
