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In the middle of the war, Ukraine has achieved something remarkable: a few weeks ago, while Russian bombs were falling, it started the test run for synchronizing its power grid with the European interconnected grid ENTSO-E.
The test run was successful, and Ukraine managed to integrate electricity.
Now she is astounding the Europeans in the west with the announcement of the first electricity deliveries to the common grid.
The Ukrainian nuclear power plants, including Zaporizhia, which is occupied by the Russians, not only supply their own country.
Because the Ukrainian economy is largely at a standstill, they also have a lot of electricity left over for export.
Namely the type of electricity that is particularly sought after in the EU: electricity with a good climate balance.
Completely different Germany.
Federal Economics Minister Robert Habeck, who had a “K” for climate added to the name of his ministry, prefers to bring old coal-fired power plants back to life.
The traffic light government is up in arms against an EU subsidy policy that also favors nuclear power.
And she wants to get out of nuclear power by the end of the year, although according to the United Nations, it is better for the climate than some renewables.
Three nuclear power plants are still online, and three others were shut down at the end of 2021 but still have an operating license.
The phase-out of nuclear power, which Angela Merkel abruptly initiated after Fukushima, should be completed in 2022.
Contrary to what was claimed, there was no objective reason for this at the time: If Fukushima had had the solid flood protection and the robust emergency power supply of the German plants, the accident would most likely not have happened.
In the current energy crisis, nuclear power plants could replace parts of the gas and coal power that would otherwise be produced with Russian energy sources.
But the federal government wants to end the discussion about it.
You succeed in amazing voltes these days.
While Habeck begs citizens for every kilowatt hour in energy saving appeals, the tens of billions of kilowatt hours from the nuclear power plants are apparently irrelevant to him.
While it was said for years that nuclear power was not accepted by the population, today surveys are ignored, according to which more than half of the citizens signaled approval of an extension of the service life.
In 2021, the then six German nuclear power plants produced as much electricity as all photovoltaics.
Now, however, their share of the power supply is downplayed, although plannable control power from nuclear power plants in bottleneck situations could make the difference between the weal and woe of the grid.
In order to belittle nuclear power, untruths are even spread.
According to the Ministry of Economics, for example, stretching operation – a reactor-physical process that mobilizes additional energy reserves from the nuclear fuel – does not make more electricity available overall.
But that's not true.
In fact, it is not a question of throttling in the summer, which is then added again in the winter.
Rather, the reactors could run at full power until the end of December and then produce additional electricity in stretching mode: Experts assume around five billion kilowatt hours per plant, which would still be possible by summer 2023.
Habeck also claims that the periodic safety inspections, which are due every ten years and are due if the nuclear power plants continue to operate, would mean that the plants would have to be shut down for months.
That's not correct.
In reality, these are safety analyzes that are carried out during operations.
It is only true that the three plants were exempted from this review in 2019 with a view to the exit and that it would now have to be made up for.
The federal government could mandate its Nuclear Safety Commission to vote on how quickly this must be done, but it appears to have a fundamental reluctance to involve nuclear experts in its deliberations.
Habeck prefers to claim at his own discretion that the systems are no longer safe.
In reality, nuclear power plants go through the safety-guaranteed test cycles and maintenance procedures prescribed by the regulations until their last day of operation and far beyond.
As soon as someone advocates the extension of nuclear power, it is said that Germany does not have an electricity problem, but a heat problem.
But if that were the case, why is the expansion of renewables, which also supply electricity and not heat, considered a panacea?
In fact, heat pumps, e-heaters and e-cars, which are used to take the pressure off the gas and oil market, also consume electricity.
And tons.
In the case of the federal government, misjudgment follows procrastination, and fear-mongering follows denial of reality.
Until the time window closes to procure new fuel elements that would be necessary for the continued operation of the nuclear power plants.
With worry lines on his forehead, Habeck tells us how much his decision for coal and Qatar gas is bothering him.
In truth, his nod to the fossilocracy is a green party tradition.
Already 40 years ago, "domestic coal" was glorified as a bridging technology, although it was demonstrably responsible for many thousands of premature deaths each year.
In contrast, the number of casualties at German nuclear power plants was zero year after year.
If Habeck calculates that he will run as a green candidate for chancellor in 2025, he knows that coal, the number one climate killer among German electricity generation options, would not harm him.
It is nuclear energy that frightens his party most.
The nuclear fear is irrational, but it is part of the green identity.
Risk perception beats risk reality, partisanship beats science.
That is the conservatism of the Greens, to which even climate protection is now falling victim.
