For the nuclear power plants in Brokdorf (Schleswig-Holstein) and Grohnde (Lower Saxony) their working life came to an end on New Year’s Eve. The two power plants, as well as Block C in the Bavarian nuclear power plant Gundremmingen, were taken off the grid the night before the turn of the year. Now the reactors are being dismantled piece by piece – a complex process that will take many years to complete.
With the shutdown of the three reactors, only three nuclear power plants in Germany will in future feed electrical energy into the power grid. But the end is in sight for the power plants that are still in operation in Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg and Lower Saxony. In one year, the Emsland, Isar 2 and Neckarwestheim 2 nuclear power plants will also cease operations. Only two plants that produce fuel and fuel elements for export are allowed to continue to operate. The German nuclear phase-out should then be officially ended.
Activists celebrated the shutdown of the Brokdorf nuclear power plant on Thursday. Members of the NGO. Broadcast projected writings such as “End! Finally! ”And“ Won together ”on the reactor dome. Since its construction in the 1980s, there had been strong resistance from nuclear power opponents to the Brokdorf Akw. It went online in 1986 – exactly in the year of the Chernobyl reactor disaster.
Fukushima as an accelerator
The political departure from nuclear energy in Germany began under the first SPD-Green government in the early 2000s. The successor government from the Union and FDP initially tried to extend the term of the German nuclear power plants. The reactor disaster in Fukushima, Japan in 2011 cemented the German exit plans for good.
Three German nuclear power plants go offline
The nuclear phase-out in Germany is progressing with the shutdown of three more power plants on New Year’s Eve. A year later, the last three nuclear power plants are due to go offline. According to legal requirements, the nuclear power plants Brokdorf in Schleswig-Holstein, Grohnde in Lower Saxony and Gundremmingen C in Bavaria will be deactivated. In addition, three smaller lignite power plants in North Rhine-Westphalia are going offline as part of the decision to phase out coal.
“The nuclear phase-out is irreversible,” said the new German Environment Minister Steffi Lemke (Greens). The move away from nuclear power is proceeding according to plan and “that’s a good thing”.
The fear of the critics
However, not everyone in Germany shares this opinion. Only recently, several company bosses spoke out in favor of extending the service life of the existing nuclear power plants. One of the main arguments of those in Germany who – yet – do not want to do without nuclear power: In combination with the phase-out of coal by 2038, Germany’s electricity grid is heading for a blatant supply bottleneck.
Others, such as the energy expert at the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW), Claudia Kemfert, point out that there is no threat to Germany – provided that renewables, grids and storage are rapidly expanded.
In a current analysis, the DIW assumes that even after the nuclear phase-out has been completed, there will be “sufficient capacities” to secure the energy supply in Germany. If the German electricity system “quickly switches to renewable energy sources in connection with storage and flexibility options”, security of supply will not be jeopardized in the medium term, they write.
Contested matter in the EU
At the EU level, the fight for the future of nuclear power is of course far from over. While some of the member states – like Austria – decidedly reject their use, other countries like France or Poland want to stick to it and also build new nuclear power plants. The EU Commission will presumably classify nuclear power as a climate-friendly form of energy.
The new classification would be part of the new taxonomy planned by the Commission for sustainable forms of energy. It is also about the possible evaluation of gas as a sustainable transition technology, which is also met with criticism.
In front of the nuclear power station in Grohnden, Greenpeace demonstrated on Thursday under the slogan “For a Europe free of nuclear power” against the EU Commission’s plans to classify nuclear energy and energy from natural gas as sustainable. This was “completely incomprehensible”, it said from the NGO.