Dusseldorf On April 15, the last three German nuclear power plants go offline. Then, after around sixty years, nuclear power generation in Germany will finally end. The topic will move Germany for a while. Because questions remain.
Germany is phasing out nuclear power at a time when coal is also being phased out and gas for gas-fired power plants has become scarce and expensive. The date had been planned since the phase-out decision was made after the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011.
But now a reliable power supply in Germany is becoming an ever greater challenge. After all, wind and solar power are not always available in equal quantities. And the power supply from France no longer seems as reliable as it used to be, because the neighboring country has serious problems with its own ailing nuclear power plants.
At the same time, the existing German nuclear power plants will not disappear from the scene when they are shut down. They will be around for years before they can be torn down.
Whether Germany is safe from a blackout even without nuclear power and how the dismantling of a nuclear power plant works – this is what energy editor Catiana Krapp talks about at Handelsblatt Green & Energy. Guests are the energy scientist Oliver Wagner from the Wuppertal Institute and the nuclear power plant dismantling expert Michael Bongartz from the management of the nuclear power plant operator Preussen Elektra.
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