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View of the cooling tower of the Isar 2 nuclear power plant
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Stefan M. Prager / imago images / Stefan M Prager
Despite the long-decided phase-out of nuclear energy at the end of the year, the debate about the continued use of the Isar 2 nuclear reactor in Bavaria is not coming to an end.
A report by TÜV Süd, which has now become known, comes to the conclusion that continued operation of Isar 2 would be possible.
The federal government had repeatedly ruled out an extension of the term due to security concerns - and is sticking to it.
A restart of Block C in Gundremmingen is "possible from a technical point of view," according to a TÜV report commissioned by the Bavarian Ministry of the Environment, which is available to the German Press Agency.
The letter is dated April 14th.
Several media had previously reported about it.
The Bavarian Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) is flirting with a short-term extension in view of the high energy prices, but it is rejected by others.
TÜV: More than 10,0000 additional gigawatt hours of electricity
In the seven-page letter from TÜV Süd, the experts assume that continued operation or the resumption of operation would be possible for a few months with the fuel elements already in place.
For Isar 2, which is supposed to go offline at the end of the year, they see potential to produce an additional 5,160 gigawatt hours of electricity by August 2023.
In Gundremmingen, from TÜV Süd's point of view, it is "plausible" to put together a reactor core with existing fuel elements that could run for about six months and generate 4,900 gigawatt hours of electricity.
For comparison: together that would be about 2.4 percent of the electricity that was delivered throughout Germany last year.
According to TÜV Süd, it would even be possible to reorder fuel elements for Isar 2 within 12 months - that would be in good time before the end of the electricity production estimated as possible by the end of August 2023.
Disunited traffic light coalition
At the federal level, the parties in the traffic light coalition have long since disagreed on the continued existence of nuclear energy due to the decline in gas supplies and the associated increases in energy costs.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) and Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) reject longer lifespans for nuclear power plants, while Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) recently showed himself open to a debate about this.
Preussenelektra, the operator of Isar 2, said they no longer wanted to comment on the ongoing debate.
However, "in the past few weeks it has been made clear that Isar 2 could continue to operate".
Preussenelektra holds 75 percent of the power plant.
A few weeks ago, however, the manager of the Isar nuclear power plant, Carsten Müller, ruled out continued operation unless a corresponding political decision was made in May.
At that time, at a hearing in the state parliament, he spoke of irreversible facts that would be decided at the end of the month.
Although uranium can be obtained, it still has to be enriched.
Furthermore, the staff had to be retrained and brought to Bavaria in order to continue to operate the Isar 2 kiln there.
Federal Ministry for the Environment: Cost-benefit analysis does not add up
The Federal Ministry for the Environment said on Friday in Berlin that the fuel elements of Isar 2 were largely used up with a view to the planned end of operations in 2022.
A spokesman said that by continuously lowering the coolant temperature and power or by shutting down the nuclear power plants in the summer of 2022, the operation of the nuclear power plants with the fuel elements currently in the power plants could be continued for up to 80 days.
Overall, however, no more electricity would be produced between now and the end of March 2023.
The spokesman again emphasized that extending the operating times of German nuclear power plants could only make a very limited contribution to security of electricity supply in Germany, and this at very high economic costs, as well as constitutional and security risks.
"As a result of weighing up the benefits and risks, extending the service life of the three remaining nuclear power plants is not recommended," he said.
atb/dpa