Germany’s last nuclear plants shut with knocks on calls for states to handle nuclear power

By Christian Andresen, dpa I Monday, April 17, 2023

 

BERLIN – Germany has shut three nuclear power plants off the grid, ending the country’s production of nuclear energy after more than 60 years.

The affected three nuclear reactors are – Isar 2 in Bavaria, Emsland in Lower Saxony, and Neckarwestheim 2 in Baden-Württemberg . They were shut down on Saturday evening, the operators announced.

They were shut even as Germany’s Green Party parliamentary group leader,Britta Haßelmann has strongly criticized Bavarian premier Markus Söder’s call for the federal states to be responsible for the continued use of nuclear power plants.

Söder was against the move  for Germany to shut nuclear plants and told the newspaper Bild am Sonntag he wants to continue operating plants such as the shutdown Isar 2 is  under state responsibility, and called for the government to amend the Atomic Energy Act.

“Bavaria is…demanding that the federal government give the federal states their own responsibility for the continued operation of nuclear power. As long as the crisis [in energy supply due to the Ukraine war] has not ended and the transition to renewables has not succeeded, we must use every form of energy until the end of the decade,” he said, adding Bavaria is ready.

However, this is considered politically impossible and would mean legislative and licensing processes as well as technical preparations that would probably take a year or more and would be too late for next winter.

The governing German three-party coalition, including the Greens, will almost certainly not go along with this. Among other things, the question of the final storage of nuclear waste that continues to be produced in Bavaria would have to be clarified separately.

In the nationwide search for a final repository for nuclear waste, Bavaria has already baulked at the idea of it being stored on its own territory.

“Söder’s statements are a transparent election campaign manoeuvre,” Haßelmann told dpa on Sunday. Bavaria, in the energy hungry south, is set to hold state elections in October.
The Atomic Energy Act has required the dismantling of nuclear power plants since 2017.

“If Söder now wants to prevent or delay the dismantling of a nuclear power plant, it must be examined whether this does not trigger liability claims against the Bavarian Environment Ministry,” she said.

“Surely one must be able to expect a little seriousness from Markus Söder. Instead of engaging in backward-looking debates, Söder would be well advised to finally turbo-charge the expansion of wind power and electricity grids in Bavaria now and to finally take responsibility for the search for a final storage site for nuclear waste.”