Habeck: Two nuclear power plants will probably have to remain connected to the grid over the winter

Created: 09/27/2022Updated: 09/27/2022 18:43

By: Fabian Mueller

Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck speaks during the opening of the WindEnergy Hamburg trade fair.

© Marcus Brandt/dpa

According to Economics Minister Robert Habeck, the nuclear power plants Isar 2 and Neckarwestheim 2 must run beyond the end of the year.

According to Economics Minister Robert Habeck, the two nuclear power plants Isar 2 and Neckarwestheim 2 will have to run beyond the end of the year.

Habeck said on Tuesday evening in Berlin.

Habeck justified this with the supply situation in France, where more than half of the nuclear power plants are not connected to the grid.

As a result, there was a lack of electricity, which Germany compensates for in part with electricity from gas-fired power plants.

"If this development is not reversed, we will leave Isar 2 and Neckarwestheim online in the first quarter of 2023," said Habeck.

Habeck: Isar 2 and Neckarwestheim will probably have to remain online beyond the end of the year

Meanwhile, the energy supplier EnBW is preparing its Neckarwestheim 2 nuclear power plant in the Heilbronn district for possible operation until April 15 next year.

The company announced on Tuesday in Karlsruhe that the kiln should definitely be shut down on December 31.

Should the federal government decide that further electricity production is required, the plant's reactor core will be reassembled with existing partially spent fuel elements and restarted.

This should ensure the production of up to 1.7 billion kilowatt hours of electricity, it said.

The decision should be made by early December of this year at the latest.

(fmü with dpa/AFP)