Dusseldorf Microsoft founder Bill Gates, the new Linde boss Sanjiv Lamba or economist Hans-Werner Sinn – they all criticize the German nuclear phase-out in view of the huge challenges in climate protection. A group of nuclear advocates and citizens’ groups also sent a letter to the party leaders on Tuesday, demanding that the legally stipulated closures of the six remaining nuclear power plants be lifted immediately.
One group has absolutely no understanding for this discussion – and it is decisive: the operators of the six remaining nuclear power plants in Germany, Eon, RWE and EnBW. “To start a debate in Germany shortly before shutdown about whether nuclear power plants make an important contribution to climate protection is disconcerting,” Eon boss Leonhard Birnbaum told Handelsblatt: “It comes much too late and is no longer useful.”
For RWE, the “Nuclear Energy Chapter” is “closed” by its own account. And Georg Stamatelopoulos, Board Member for Sustainable Generation Infrastructure at EnBW, soberly states on request: “The phase-out of nuclear energy was decided in 2011 by political and social consensus and clearly regulated by law. The use of nuclear energy for electricity production is now a thing of the past in Germany. “
In fact, the decision to phase out nuclear power, which was decided in 2011 in the wake of the Fukushima reactor disaster, is almost complete. Of the 17 reactors at the time, six are still in operation. Three have to be offline by the end of the year, the rest by the end of next year.
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Recently, however, the criticism of the decision at that time has grown again. Proponents of nuclear power argue with the security of supply and high electricity prices; after all, it is unclear how Germany can cope with the increasing demand for electricity and the simultaneous withdrawal from coal-fired power generation. But they also argue with climate protection, after all, power plants that generate electricity with almost no CO2 would be taken off the grid.
“The German nuclear phase-out was certainly not brilliant,” said the new Linde boss Lamba recently in an interview with the Handelsblatt. Shutting down nuclear power plants makes it harder to “guarantee security of supply and affordable prices,” said Microsoft founder Bill Gates. And the former President of the Ifo Institute, Hans-Werner Sinn, recently openly described the decision at that time as a “mistake and, above all, a short-circuit act”.
Occasionally, even politicians and managers are calling for the nuclear phase-out to be stopped shortly before it is implemented. For example, ex-BASF boss Jürgen Hambrecht recently spoke out in favor of extending the service life of the six remaining German nuclear power plants. Just like Volkswagen boss Herbert Diess before.
There is no question of extension
On the one hand, this is politically unrealistic – if the Greens are to participate in government in the future. On the other hand, the nuclear companies themselves are no longer interested in it.
“The legislature decided years ago that nuclear power has no future in Germany. Continuing to operate our nuclear power plants beyond the statutory deadline of 2022 is not an issue for us, “says Eon boss Birnbaum,” and it stays that way. “
After the decision to exit, EnBW worked out a long-term strategy for the dismantling of its nuclear power plants, which it has consistently implemented since then, emphasized Executive Board member Stamatelopoulos not.”
And the RWE Group will also shut down its two remaining nuclear power plant blocks in accordance with the statutory deadlines: “After that, it’s all about the safe and responsible dismantling of the plants.”
The companies have no longer any economic interest in this. At first they had defended themselves with lawsuits and constitutional complaints, but even then it was not about the nuclear phase-out per se, but about the conditions. The nuclear companies simply demanded appropriate compensation.
The question has now been clarified. Above all, however, it was decided who is responsible for dismantling and disposal. The former remains the responsibility of the corporations, but disposal and liability has been taken over by a public nuclear fund.
Nuclear power is more expensive than all other forms of energy
The dismantling of the power plants, the disposal of radioactive material, the search for a repository – all of this devours huge sums of money. German authorities and research institutes are therefore reckoning with up to 34 cents per kilowatt hour for nuclear power – by far the highest price of all forms of energy. For the corporations, the nuclear power business had only paid off for years because the state would have assumed most of the costs in the event of a worst-case scenario.
But the corporations also had to bring in billions in provisions for the exit. For Eon, EnBW and RWE that was a feat of strength, but also a liberation. The incalculable risks involved in disposing of the radioactive contaminated sites had weighed heavily on share prices.
And although the corporations blocked themselves for a long time, they have now all committed themselves to the energy transition. Eon concentrates on sales and networks, EnBW is one of the largest operators of offshore wind farms, and even RWE, Germany’s largest coal company, is now ready to phase out coal early and has declared renewable energies to be its core business.
A revision of the nuclear phase-out would be short-term and hardly possible afterwards, as it is said in corporate circles. The operating licenses would expire. New permits would drag on for years. Contracts with partner companies have long been terminated.
According to one operator, the plans have been aimed “for years at the end date of the service operation”. “We no longer have the fuel. And even the necessary personnel that we would need to operate our systems are no longer available in sufficient quantities for power operation after the shutdown. ”This also affects the suppliers.
Renewable energies instead of nuclear power
As resolute as the energy companies are when it comes to nuclear energy, they are also demanding decisive measures from the future federal government to close the looming electricity gap. “In order to make the goals of the energy transition and thus climate protection in Germany successful, we believe that speed is most important,” demands RWE.
The aim now is to increase the expansion targets for renewable energies, to accelerate the expansion of the grid and to shorten approval procedures for wind turbines, for example. RWE is ready to make a major contribution to the construction of wind and solar systems and to realize as many projects as possible.
Challenges such as the decarbonisation of industry, the ramp-up of electromobility, the coupling with the heating and transport sectors could “only be mastered with enormous investments in the electricity distribution networks and in their digitization,” says Eon.
For Eon boss Birnbaum, however, it is also clear that nuclear power will still play a role in Germany via detours: “Of course, the French in particular will continue to feed electricity from nuclear energy into the European energy network,” Birnbaum states: “And it doesn’t matter, as we expand renewable energies, Germany will remain an import country for energy. If you will, that is the opposite of our success as one of the world export champions. “
More: There will be no revision of the nuclear phase-out in Germany – for good reasons