As of: March 26, 2024, 10:24 a.m
By: Dirk Walter
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The Isar 2 nuclear power plant with its striking cooling tower.
© Armin Weigel/dpa
Last hopes that the Isar 2 nuclear power plant could perhaps go back into operation have been dashed: Bavaria's environment minister has, albeit reluctantly, granted permission for its demolition.
The so-called dismantling is expected to last until the end of the 2030s.
Essenbach - Joy looks different: Environment Minister Thorsten Glauber (FW) issued the decision to dismantle Isar 2 last Friday.
The federal nuclear law enforces this, explained Glauber.
He thinks the decision is wrong.
“We have always advocated allowing the nuclear power plants to continue to operate temporarily as a climate-friendly bridge.” The fact that the nuclear power plant was the last Bavarian nuclear power plant to be shut down as planned on April 15, 2023 is akin to “sending a perfectly healthy 50-year-old into retirement “.
The reactor originally had approval until 2034.
Isar 2 with its striking cooling tower directly on the Isar near Essenbach (Landshut district) has been in operation since 1988 and supplied electricity for 35 years - an average of twelve percent of electricity generation in Bavaria per year.
There were 88 reportable minor incidents, but no dramatic incidents.
With an output of 1,400 megawatts, it was among the top 10 most powerful nuclear power plants in the world.
There is no reliable information about the amount of radioactive waste generated during the period.
There is currently no final storage facility in Germany.
Approval came as no surprise to the mayor
Now Isar 2 is history - just like many announcements from the CSU, which accompanied the shutdown of Isar 2 last year with massive protests.
Prime Minister Markus Söder said at the time that he wanted to force a change to the Atomic Energy Act so that the power plant could continue to operate under state control.
However, that didn't happen.
Essenbach's mayor Dieter Neubauer (CSU) considers the exit to be wrong, but was not surprised by the demolition permit.
“The trade fair was read at the end of last year” - at that time, PreußenElektra boss Guido Knopp declared that “the topic of recommissioning” was “definitely off the table” for technical reasons.
PreußenElektra, as the operator of the system, announced that it wanted to “get started after Easter”.
The group has experience: the neighboring Isar 1 power plant has been dismantled since 2017 - the work is scheduled to be completed in 2032.
Every year 2,500 tons are dismantled and disposed of.
Demolition will last until the end of the 2030s
At Isar 2, the 193 highly radioactive fuel elements have already been removed and transported to an interim storage facility on site.
“The first dismantling work will be dismantling work in the area of the main coolant pumps,” explained PreussenElektra.
Dismantling the pressure vessel yourself will be a challenge: the walls are over a meter thick.
The entire demolition is again estimated to take 15 years - so it would happen at the end of the 2030s.
Environment Minister Glauber explained that in the end the areas of Isar 2 should be “freely usable again”.
“The aim of the dismantling is the green field.” But that is not enough for PreussenElektra.
Attempts are being made to develop “new, sensible usage options”.
Essenbach's mayor Neubauer is also excited about this: PreußenElektra will probably keep and use the site, he says.
A buyback by the community is not an issue, “we have no cash cow”.
“Something in the direction of energy supply” is to be expected.