Federal office warns of EU plans for green atomic label

Created: 01/12/2022Updated: 01/12/2022, 7:57 am

Activists of the “Koala Kollektiv” demonstrate in front of the Euro sculpture in downtown Frankfurt against greenwashing of nuclear energy and natural gas through the taxonomy of the EU.

© Arne Dedert / dpa

The German nuclear authority BASE has expressed massive concerns about the EU's plans for a sustainable label for nuclear power.

Crucial questions about the dangers are not considered.

Berlin - The Federal Office for the Safety of Nuclear Waste Management (BASE) rejects the EU plans for a green label for nuclear power plants as “unsustainable” and warns against putting them into effect.

This emerges from a current analysis that the Federal Office will present this Wednesday.

In it, the authority criticizes the EU Commission's approach to classifying nuclear power as a sustainable investment, among other things as "incomprehensible". The commission disregards the “view that nuclear energy is not sustainable” and “is guided exclusively by the supposedly positive contribution of atomic energy to climate protection”, writes the BASE in the six-page document that the German press agency received in advance.

Central criteria such as the risk of nuclear accidents and the difficulties involved in disposing of nuclear waste are far too little taken into account in the EU assessment, warns the Federal Office, which in Germany, among other things, oversees the handling of nuclear waste.

Also on new types of reactors and possible extensions of the service life of existing nuclear reactors, many safety questions are unanswered, which the Commission does not take due account of, it said.

Investment favors

The background to the critical statement is the planned classification at EU level, the so-called taxonomy, with which the Commission wants to determine which investments should be considered climate-friendly in the future. To this end, the Commission presented a proposal on December 31st, which provides that investments in new nuclear power plants can be classified as green if they meet the latest standards and a specific plan for the radioactive waste is in place. Investments in new gas-fired power plants should also be able to be classified as green temporarily, especially at Germany's request.

BASE boss König warned of the negative effects of the planned nuclear power classification - also for Germany.

"From a technical point of view, the classification of nuclear power as a sustainable form of energy generation is not tenable," said König of the dpa.

Atomic energy is "a high-risk technology" that also carries the "risk of the misuse of radioactive material for terrorist and warlike purposes".

"We are placing considerable burdens on future generations that cannot be reconciled with the claim of intergenerational justice," said König.

Liability sums are not enough

In its analysis, BASE also points out that in the event of nuclear accidents, the liability of power plant operators is "severely limited" in many European countries.

In the event of "serious accidents with significant radioactivity leakage", the liability sums would not be sufficient, the office fears.

The EU Commission's argument that nuclear power plants emit hardly any gases that are harmful to the climate falls short of the mark, according to BASE.

Only the operation of the nuclear power plant is considered in the balance sheet, but not other life cycle phases such as dismantling or uranium extraction, which, according to the Federal Office, certainly contribute to the emission of greenhouse gases.

Last summer, BASE published a critical analysis of a report by the Joint Research Center (JRC), the scientific service of the EU Commission.

In the report, the JRC came to a positive assessment of nuclear energy.

Even then, BASE had certified that the EU service had “technical deficiencies”.

The planned taxonomy decision is also controversial among the EU states.

The federal government has a split position: While it had already spoken out clearly against the inclusion of nuclear power in the past, it also campaigned for a green label for gas as a necessary transition technology.

The EU Commission, on the other hand, defended its proposal from criticism from the start.

This means that the member states could approach climate neutrality from very different starting positions, the authority said.

The Commission believes that investments in natural gas and nuclear energy could help accelerate the transition to clean energy sources.

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EU countries have until January 21st to react to the proposal.

It is currently considered likely that the plans will succeed - since too few countries besides Germany have so far clearly spoken out against the aforementioned classification of nuclear power.

dpa