In view of the energy crisis, can the last nuclear reactors perhaps continue to run beyond the turn of the year? Even the Greens no longer rule this out – but only for a very limited time.
Munich (dpa / lby) – The faction and party leadership of the Bavarian Greens does not rule out extending the life of the remaining nuclear power plants – but only for a stretched operation of a few weeks. “The main thing for us is to ensure security of supply,” says a statement by state parliamentary group leader Ludwig Hartmann, from which the “Augsburger Allgemeine” was the first to quote. If the tightened stress test that is now underway should show that individual nuclear power plants are necessary “in extreme cases” to maintain the power supply and grid stability, “depending on the plant, we have to react accordingly”. The state chairman Thomas von Sarnowski made a similar statement.
Hartmann and von Sarnowski pointed out that the risk of supply bottlenecks in winter is greater in Bavaria than in other federal states. “Bavaria must be given special consideration in this test because the Bavarian government has made us completely dependent on Russian gas, overslept the expansion of wind and solar energy and boycotted the important grid expansion,” said Hartmann. “That makes us the problem child of the federal government and puts us in the situation that – depending on the result of the stress test – we may have to leave a high-risk technology online for a few weeks to bridge the gap.” We are now waiting for the results of the stress test in the coming weeks. “After that we decide.”
“In extreme cases,” a stretched operation of the Isar 2 nuclear power plant must also be checked, no extension of the term, said von Sarnowski. He explained: “A stretch operation would mean that the existing fuel elements would continue to be used for a few months without generating additional nuclear waste.”
Previously, Bundestag Vice President Katrin Göring-Eckardt (Greens) had not ruled out the so-called extended operation of nuclear power plants in Germany beyond the end of the year. When asked whether the Greens would allow the kiln to be stretched, she said on the ARD program “Anne Will” on Sunday: “If we have a real emergency situation, that hospitals can no longer work, if a If such an emergency occurs, then we need to talk about what about the fuel rods.”
The last three reactors actually have to be shut down by December 31st. In the case of a stretching operation, the power plants would first be throttled so that they can then be operated with the existing fuel rods beyond the turn of the year.