Habeck expects nuclear power to continue operating until April 2023

Created: 09/27/2022Updated: 09/27/2022, 20:02

At the beginning of September, Habeck announced the plan for a so-called operational reserve for the two nuclear power plants in Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg.

© Michael Kappeler/dpa

It is becoming increasingly likely that the two nuclear power plants in Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg will continue to operate beyond 2022.

Economics Minister Habeck has now announced that all precautions would be taken for this scenario.

Berlin - Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck (Greens) expects two nuclear power plants in Germany to continue operating beyond the end of the year.

The minister said this on Tuesday evening in Berlin.

As of today, his ministry assumes that the “reserve” will be drawn and that the Isar 2 and Neckarwestheim nuclear power plants will continue to be connected to the grid in the first quarter of 2023.

Habeck explained that he had agreed with the operators of the nuclear power plants in Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg on key points for the implementation of the planned deployment reserve by mid-April 2023 at the latest.

The operators would now take all necessary precautions for this.

The main reason for this is the tense situation on the French electricity market.

Habeck made it clear that the development in the neighboring country was significantly worse than forecast.

More than half of the nuclear power plants there are not connected to the grid, so there is a lack of electricity, which Germany compensates for in part with electricity from gas-fired power plants.

If the situation in France develops poorly, the stress factors for the German electricity system will intensify.

Decision painful for the Greens

"As the Minister responsible for energy security, I must therefore say: If this development is not reversed, we will leave Isar 2 and Neckarwestheim on the grid in the first quarter of 2023," stressed Habeck.

For the Greens, such a decision is painful because of the party's decades-long resistance to nuclear energy, especially with a view to the upcoming state elections in Lower Saxony.

According to the key points agreed with the operators, the two nuclear power plants are to be transferred to an operational reserve after the end of their regular service life on December 31, 2022.

They are ready to prevent an impending power grid bottleneck in southern Germany.

Habeck's announcements do not go far enough for the traffic light partner FDP.

"The ideas of the Minister of Economics, which were not coordinated within the traffic light coalition, fall short of what is necessary in the tense situation on the electricity market," said FDP parliamentary group Vice President Lukas Köhler of the German Press Agency.

Emsland is to be shut down by the end of the year

At the beginning of September, Habeck announced the plan for a possible continued operation (reserve operation) of two of the three nuclear power plants still in operation in Germany.

The third reactor in Lower Saxony (Emsland) that is still active should not be part of this emergency reserve and should be switched off on December 31st.

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A final decision on the further operation of the nuclear power plant has not yet been made.

It must fall “in December at the latest,” explained Habeck.

The cornerstones agreed between Habeck and the operators are the basis for the next steps in implementing the operational reserve.

The legislative process should be completed by the end of October.

The operators of the two nuclear power plants, EnBW for Neckarwestheim and the E.On subsidiary Preussen Elektra for Isar 2, also confirmed the agreement with the ministry on Tuesday evening.

The Neckarwestheim nuclear power plant will “definitely be shut down on December 31, 2022,” EnBW explained.

Should the federal government decide “that further electricity production is necessary, the reactor core of the plant will be reassembled with already existing partially used fuel elements in order to ensure electricity production of up to 1.7 billion kilowatt hours after restart through this optimization step,” it said further.

The "high security requirements" would remain unchanged.

Steam rises from the cooling tower of the Isar 2 nuclear power plant. © Armin Weigel/dpa

Isar-2 operator Preussen Elektra announced that the nuclear power plant would go into short shutdown "soon" to allow revision of its internal valves.

After the restart, the plant with the existing reactor core can probably continue to run until March 2023, it said.

"Even if there is unfortunately no final clarity about the continued operation of Isar 2, we welcome the agreement that has been reached.

We can work with it, and we can now start with the necessary preparatory work,” said Guido Knott, CEO.

Isar 2 still has to be repaired in October

Only at the beginning of last week did it become known that the Bavarian nuclear power plant Isar 2 would have to be repaired in October due to a worn valve in order to even be considered as an emergency reserve after December 31st.

Habeck and the nuclear power plant operators then discussed the exact design of continued operation until mid-2023 under new circumstances.

At the same time, in the past few weeks, not only the opposition from the Union and AfD had continued to put pressure on the minister to let the nuclear power plants continue to run beyond the end of the year.

There is also dissent in the government ranks on this issue: the traffic light coalition partner FDP even insists on continued operation of the nuclear power plant until 2024. FDP parliamentary group leader Christian Dürr told the "Rheinische Post" that in combination with an extension of the lifetime of the nuclear power plants there would also be a gas price brake have to come.

Habeck rejected "political coupling solutions" of this kind on Tuesday evening.

"It's not my approach," he said.

The Neckarwestheim nuclear power plant in Baden-Württemberg.

© Christoph Schmidt/dpa

Environmental organizations and opponents of nuclear power sharply criticized the now highly probable continued operation of the nuclear power plant.

One warns against a preliminary decision, explained the managing director of the German environmental aid, Sascha Müller-Kränner.

dpa