Despite climate change: head of the nuclear waste authority defends out for nuclear power

The head of the authority for the handling of nuclear waste considers the exit from nuclear power to be correct despite the problems with climate protection. "The correct conclusions have been reached after the experience of Chernobyl and Fukushima," said Wolfram König to the Funke media group's newspapers.

Nuclear power raises central security questions, "high-risk substances" are generated, which could also be the basis for nuclear armament. "In Germany there has been a major social conflict over the use of atomic energy for decades, which we pacify with the exit," said König.

He heads the Federal Office for Nuclear Waste Management (BfE), which is responsible, among other things, for the issues of repositories and interim storage facilities as well as nuclear transport.

Nuclear power plant in Philippsburg, Baden, goes offline in December

The nuclear phase-out in Germany is already underway. At the end of December, the nuclear power plant in Philippsburg, Baden, will go offline, and Germany will completely phase out of nuclear power by the end of 2022. In the face of the climate crisis, some politicians question this and demand that they prefer to get out of the climate-damaging electricity generation from coal more quickly. That should happen in Germany by 2038 at the latest.

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Morsleben When the West sank its nuclear waste in the East

Critics of the nuclear phase-out like to refer to the report of the IPCC in 2014, which emphasizes the low greenhouse gas emissions from nuclear power. However, the climate experts also refer in the same document to the problem of finding repositories for the nuclear waste, as well as to risks in the operation of the reactors and in uranium mining.

It would be a security gain if there were fewer nuclear power plants on the grid, said King. "The challenge will be to ensure security of supply while exiting coal-fired power generation."

The expansion of renewable energies and the power grids must be "massively promoted". Currently, the further expansion of wind power in rural areas is stalling.