While Germany is abandoning nuclear power entirely, France only wants to reduce its share of the energy mix. The dismantling of power plants there also has consequences for Baden-Württemberg.
- After the shutdown of the Fessenheim nuclear power plant , a residue processing center is to be built there .
- The operator wants to melt down parts of old nuclear power plants on the "largest nuclear waste dump in Europe" .
- In Germany and Baden-Württemberg there is resistance , researchers have a counter-proposal .
Fessenheim / Freiburg - At the latest since the reactor disaster in Fukushima, Japan , the phase- out of atomic energy has been decided in Germany . The risks of a GAU are simply too great for nuclear power plants . This was shown in mid-July by the Neckarwestheim II nuclear power plant in Baden-Württemberg, where cracks in pipes had been discovered (BW24 * reported). With other nuclear power plants in Baden-Württemberg , on the other hand, we are much further along. The cooling towers of the Philippsburg nuclear power plant were blown up in mid-May. A drone flew over the Philippsburg nuclear power plant and filmed the explosion. *
In neighboring France , the path is not so radical. Instead of completely phasing out atomic energy ,only some will power plants shut down and thus the proportion on energy lowered France. The nuclear power plant in Fessenheim on the border with Baden-Württemberg is also affected. The nuclear power plant is about 25 kilometers from Freiburg and has been shut down since 2020. But a discussion has now broken out about the future of the location, in which Germany is also heavily involved.
Fessenheim nuclear power plant: After the shutdown, nuclear materials could continue - in the form of a garbage dump
As the Badische Zeitung (BZ) reports, Electricité de France (EDF) wants to build a nuclear waste processing center on the site of the Fessenheim nuclear power plant . In the so-called “Technocentre” , metal from decommissioned reactors is to be melted down for further use - and not only from France . The "Technocentre" should not melt down any parts from Germany, but certainly from other European countries. According to BZ, the French activist and physicist Jean-Marie Brom speaks of "the largest nuclear waste dump in Europe".
The two reactor buildings of the Fessenheim nuclear power plant. The Akw in Alsace went offline at the end of June after more than 40 years.
© Philipp von Ditfurth / dpa
Germany would still be affected by such a nuclear waste dump . Because the material would be brought to Fessenheim via water, i.e. the Rhine , among other things . According to the BZ , a separate port is to be built for this. In addition, it can also in a residue processing center as on the grounds of the nuclear power plant Fessenheim to incidents come. According to Simone Mohr, Senior Researcher for Nuclear Technology and Plant Safety at the Ökoinstitut Darmstadt, the hazard potential of a plant for processing nuclear residues is not comparable to that of a nuclear power plant , according to the BZ .
When melting the metal parts of old nuclear power plants but also radioactive fall slag , which must in turn be disposed of. In addition, such nuclear rubbish dumps can lead to explosions that release increased radiation - according to the BZ, this happened in Krefeld in 1989.
Fessenheim nuclear power plant site: nuclear waste dump or innovation and eco-industrial park
Baden-Württemberg would probably prefer the operator EDF to relocate the waste processing center to Tricastin . A nuclear power plant is also being dismantled there and EDF is considering melting down the radioactive parts there. The place in the Département Drôme would in any case be much further away from the German border. Because "sooner or later such a system will be required in France," says Simone Mohr to the BZ .
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The Alsatian nuclear power plant #Fessenheim, which has been a security risk for decades, has been shut down for good. The second pressurized water reactor of the oldest nuclear power plant in France was disconnected from the power grid late Monday evening at 11 p.m., as announced by the French energy company EDF. The process had started several hours earlier than planned on Monday afternoon. The first reactor block of the power plant on the Rhine, which has been producing electricity since the end of 1977, was taken off the grid at the end of February. Critics have considered the nuclear power plant on the border with Baden-Württemberg to be a safety risk for decades. Opponents of nuclear power, especially in Germany and Switzerland, had long unsuccessfully campaigned for the two reactors to be shut down. German politicians and environmental activists welcomed the shutdown. Employees and residents, however, criticized the shutdown sharply. The region around the municipality of Fessenheim in the Haut-Rhin department in southern Alsace is now to become a green and cross-border showcase project. Projects for sustainable energy generation are to be implemented in a Franco-German innovation park. However, it will be decades before the site of the nuclear power plant itself can be used. According to the operator, the preparations for dismantling are estimated to take five years, and dismantling itself then takes another 15 years.
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Should the center move to Tricastin , scientists from the Upper Rhine universities (EUCOR) and the Freiburg Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems would have an alternative development plan for the Fessenheim nuclear power plant site . They want the “Fessenheim Innovation Region” to be created there. As the BZ reports, this includes an innovation and eco-industry park , a European research institute for social and environmental sciences and a visitor park that is supposed to convey innovation topics . The innovation park will focus on topics such as gigawatt storage, battery production, intelligent power grids and hydrogen storage technology.
"We hope that we can convince the French side in the sense of a Franco-German joint solution that this concept is more sustainable," said Klaus Schüle, head of the office for cross-border cooperation in the Freiburg regional council to the BZ .
In order to convince the nuclear power plant operator EDF and the French government , the innovation park should create more than 150 jobs - that is how many are hoped for from the “Technocentre” . Whether EDF is interested in topics such as environmental sciences remains questionable. An alluvial forest is now growing on the site, which is also required for the “Technocentre”. That would first have to be cut down - if only with ecological consideration. (* BW24 is part of the Ippen-Digital network )
List of rubric lists: © Philipp von Ditfurth / dpa
