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Bavaria's Prime Minister Markus Söder and CDU leader Friedrich Merz: nuclear power?
Yes, please
Photo: Bernd von Jutrczenka / dpa
In the energy crisis, the Union is demanding longer service lives for the remaining German nuclear reactors.
In the course of the debate, CDU leader Friedrich Merz and CSU leader Markus Söder announced that they would like to visit the Isar 2 power plant near Landshut together.
On Thursday, the two heads of the Union parties will get an idea of the current situation at Block 2, which was first put into operation in 1988, as the State Chancellery in Munich surprisingly announced on Wednesday afternoon.
Merz and Söder will be accompanied by Bavaria's Economics Minister Hubert Aiwanger and Environment Minister Thorsten Faithr (free voters).
Unlike the four politicians, the press is not allowed on the security area of the nuclear power plant.
The camera teams should wait in front of the entrance for Merz, Söder and Co. to comment there.
Another stress test planned
The federal government has not yet made a final decision for or against extending the term.
The FDP recently spoke out in favor of an extension, and even the Greens made statements that at least a so-called stretching operation - i.e. continued use with the current fuel rods until next summer - might be justifiable under certain circumstances.
The Federal Ministry of Economics, led by Robert Habeck (Greens), recently announced another stress test in which the benefits and risks of a longer term in the current situation are to be analysed.
The result should be presented in the coming weeks.
According to current legislation, the operating license for the nuclear reactor would expire at the end of the year, as would that of the other two remaining reactors, Emsland in Lower Saxony and Neckarwestheim 2 in Baden-Württemberg.
In the wake of the looming energy crisis, however, a debate has long since flared up in Germany about a renewed exit from the nuclear phase-out.
In 2011, the then federal government under Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) decided to gradually phase out nuclear energy for Germany after the nuclear disaster in Fukushima, Japan.
As a result, the extension of the term that she had decided in autumn 2010 was withdrawn again.
In the Union, the nuclear phase-out was very controversial for many years before the debate recently flared up again.
Critics of nuclear power, including environmental organizations such as Greenpeace and BUND Naturschutz, have doubts about the safety of the reactors, also with a view to terrorist attacks and floods.
In addition, the last safety reviews carried out in 2009 were based on a set of rules from the early 1980s, in which the nuclear accidents in Chernobyl and Fukushima were not yet taken into account, it said.
On the other hand, the proponents rely on a report by TÜV Süd on behalf of the Bavarian Ministry of the Environment, according to which operation beyond December 31, 2022 would also be possible from a safety point of view.
muk/dpa
