Green turn at the nuclear power plants?

New tones ring out from Bavaria – “Everything comes on the table”

Created: 08/16/2022, 13:18

By: Florian Naumann

The Greens around Katharina Schulze and Ludwig Hartmann do not rule out continued operation of the nuclear power plant for a limited period of time - and blame Markus Söder (right).

© Sachelle Babbar/Imago

Are Bavaria's Greens leading the way?

Schulze and Hartmann are now open to nuclear power plant stretching.

You think it would have screwed up in the Söder case.

Munich – In the traffic light coalition, turns and changes of opinion are sometimes indicated through the back door.

The FDP parliamentary group in Lower Saxony has just presented new options for an animal welfare tax - after a long dispute in Berlin.

Now the Bavarian state parliament Greens are open to a nuclear power plant "stretching operation".

As a new signal, this could indirectly indicate consequences for the Isar 2 nuclear power plant in Lower Bavaria.

Even if the Bavarian Greens have no government responsibility at all.

Gas crisis: Greens send new nuclear signals in Bavaria – “Everything is on the table”

Green party leader Ludwig Hartmann has now presented the continued operation of nuclear power plants for a clearly limited period of time as fundamentally acceptable - at least if the second electricity "stress test" announced by Economics Minister and party colleague Robert Habeck results in a bottleneck for southern Germany.

In this case, "everything is on the table," said Hartmann of the

.

“Then there are several alternatives.

One of which would be a stretching operation for a few months.”

The debate is anything but new.

The Munich City Council Greens had spoken out in favor of the temporary continued operation of Isar 2 weeks ago.

But they had received criticism from Berlin.

Lisa Badum, Chairwoman of the Greens for climate protection and energy in the Bundestag, had reprimanded a nonsensical approach.

The stress test is still pending: "Speculation is therefore currently unnecessary and counterproductive," said the deputy from Franconia at the end of July.

Other Green celebrities were even clearer on the sensitive issue for the party.

At the beginning of August, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock called term extensions “not an option”.

Greens in the nuclear power plant dispute: Schulze and Hartmann are now open to stretching - great for Söder

The first stress test some time ago showed no need for nuclear energy.

In view of new developments - such as a power shortage in France, precisely because of problems with the nuclear power plants there - Habeck had commissioned a new expertise.

The result is still a long time coming, to the displeasure of the opposition.

However, the minister did not rule out a resulting “special scenario”.

At the same time, Hartmann and his co-boss Katharina Schulze emphasized that they reject a general extension of the term.

“Clear no to the term extension.

At the same time, everyone understands how difficult the situation is and that the CSU government overslept the expansion of renewable energies," said Schulze.

The position of the Greens remains that Germany must “get out of this high-risk technology”.

The CSU under party leader Markus Söder is one of the advocates of continuing nuclear power plant operation.

The Greens at all levels have been emphasizing for weeks that a possible energy shortage in Bavaria is due to the failure of the state government, which has been led by the CSU for decades.

Federal politician Katrin Göring-Eckardt, for example, attested to Söder in the ARD talk "Anne Will" a "specifically Bavarian problem" in terms of power supply.

Party leader Omid Nouirpour called Söder the "problem bear of the energy supply".

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Spahn urges Scholz

Union parliamentary group leader Jens Spahn also urged the federal SPD on Tuesday to give up its no to the extension of the term.

“This politically motivated blockade must finally be abandoned.

Germany and Europe urgently need this electricity in winter,” said the CDU politician on Tuesday when he visited the Emsland nuclear power plant in Lingen.

The Union party leaders Söder and Merz (CDU) had recently visited Isar 2 and there was also pressure from the EU towards continued operation – as well as from Ukraine.

The acute background to the debate is massively throttled gas supplies from Russia and the lack of alternatives to date.

Habeck's stress test is intended to clarify how the energy supply can be ensured in winter.

Scenarios are calculated, including those with and without nuclear energy.

Olaf Scholz's government spokesman, Steffen Hebestreit, recently said that once the result was available, one would have to see whether extending the nuclear power plant was justifiable.

According to the applicable Atomic Energy Act, the remaining German piles Isar 2 in Bavaria, Neckar-Westheim in Baden-Württemberg and Emsland in Lower Saxony would have to go offline after December 31, 2022.

An amendment to the law in the Bundestag is also needed for the so-called stretching operation, i.e. the continued use of the current fuel rods.

Critics of nuclear power warn of incalculable safety risks with only very low energy yields because the reactors are more than 30 years old.

Environmental groups have already announced lawsuits if the nuclear phase-out does not take place by the end of the year.

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Nuclear power plants in the gas crisis

According to official information, nuclear power plants generated 6 percent of the electricity in Germany in the first quarter, and gas-fired power plants 13 percent.

However, unlike nuclear reactors, gas-fired power plants in most cases also generate heat for households and industry in addition to electricity.

This complicates the matter of saving gas by shifting electricity production to nuclear reactors - because many gas-fired power plants would still have to run.

In many cases, nuclear proponents are now demanding an extension of the service life until 2024 in order to cover the next winter, which could also be difficult due to the lack of gas supplies.

So far, the SPD and the Greens in particular have strictly ruled out this option.

The Federal Office for the Safety of Nuclear Waste Management recently warned against hasty conclusions from the stress test result: "The ongoing stress test is intended to provide an answer to the security of supply with electricity next winter," said the head of the authority, Wolfram König, to the Funke newspapers.

"The nuclear safety of the nuclear power plants, which is necessary for a possible continued operation, is not considered." (

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