A year ago, electricity from nuclear power plants also ended in Lower Saxony. The country is focusing on the significant expansion of renewable energies.
Lingen - After the last nuclear power plant in Lower Saxony was shut down last year, the state government is drawing a positive interim conclusion. According to the Ministry of the Environment and Energy, the amount of electricity generated from renewable sources increased significantly. For the first time in 2023, Lower Saxony generated more electricity from renewable energies than it consumed. “Our electricity is 100.6 percent climate-neutral from renewable energies and we export a lot of renewable electricity to other federal states. We don’t need expensive nuclear power,” said Minister Christian Meyer (Greens) on Friday. On April 15, 2023, the last three nuclear power plants in Germany, the nuclear power plants in Lingen, Neckarwestheim 2 and Isar 2, were taken offline.
Joy and worries among critics of nuclear power
Critics of nuclear power point to the risks that still exist on the power plant site in Lingen. Radioactive waste is still stored on the site, said Alexander Vent from the Alliance of Opponents of Nuclear Power in Emsland (AgiEL): “We still don’t know what will happen to it.” At the moment there are forecasts that the material will not be available until the year 2100 at the earliest be removed from the site. “We are leaving our children and grandchildren in Lingen a huge mountain of dangerous, toxic, radiant material,” explained Vent. However, the opponents of nuclear power are happy that the danger of a major accident no longer exists since the shutdown. “The acute danger posed by an operating nuclear power plant is definitely history now,” explained Vent.
Energy supply is secure, but more expensive
Nuclear power advocates are drawing attention to the rise in energy prices due to the war in Ukraine. The general manager of the Lower Saxony business associations, Volker Müller, said he still has no understanding why the federal government shut down the last nuclear power plants in Germany in a shortage situation. In his opinion, the energy supply has not become more uncertain because of the nuclear phase-out, but it has become more expensive. “That is why nuclear power should have been extended, not indefinitely, but for the period of crisis,” said Müller. At the same time, the energy transition should have been pushed further forward.
There is still radiant material on the power plant site
After the reactor in Lingen was shut down, the fuel elements were removed from the reactor pressure vessel and reloaded into a fuel storage pool. According to the ministry, the fuel elements are further cooled there until they meet the requirements for loading into a castor and then transferred to the neighboring interim storage facility of the Bundesgesellschaft für Zwischenlager mbH (BGZ). The fuel elements will remain there until a final storage facility for highly radioactive waste has been found in Germany. According to new federal plans, this could take until 2080.
There are also still nuclear supporters
From the perspective of the Lower Saxony business association managing director Müller, the nuclear phase-out in Germany was a mistake. In his view, the most climate-friendly energy supply is nuclear power. It does not cause any climate-damaging emissions and, unlike electricity from wind or solar, it can be used as base load. The CDU parliamentary group in the state parliament is also in favor of not generally ruling out the use of nuclear power in the future, but rather considering it in a technology-neutral manner. “The further development of nuclear power can certainly offer opportunities for energy supply and the production of climate-neutral energy in the future; these opportunities should not be given up from the outset,” said the parliamentary group’s environmental policy spokeswoman, Verena Kämmerling. Nuclear fusion is of particular interest - Germany should not lag behind in this regard. However, she sees no short-term solution in traditional nuclear power.
The country relies on renewable energies
According to the Ministry of Energy, Lower Saxony is the No. 1 wind energy state with the largest installed capacity and the most systems. While in 2019 the number of newly built wind turbines was 53 with an output of 174.8 megawatts (MW), last year there were 132 newly built turbines with an output of 635.9 MW. Thanks to its “Energy Transition Task Force”, Lower Saxony has shortened the approval period for new wind turbines to well under a year. In the first quarter of this year, 504 MW of wind energy was approved. “This means that the goal of approving 1,500 MW per year is within sight,” said Minister Meyer.
Criticism from the opposition
The CDU in the state parliament criticizes the fact that there is no overall concept for the expansion of renewable energies. The “Energy Transition Task Force” has so far remained largely inconclusive. “It is not enough to advance individual aspects such as the expansion of wind energy without launching accompanying initiatives to expand the networks,” said Kämmerling. There is also not enough happening when it comes to the hydrogen economy and the expansion of Lower Saxony's ports as an energy hub.
Despite the phase-out, Lower Saxony is still a nuclear country
Fuel elements for nuclear power plants in Europe have been manufactured in Lingen for more than four decades. In the future, the company Advanced Nuclear Fuels (ANF) will also produce fuel elements for Soviet-designed Eastern European nuclear power plants in Lingen. The project must be approved by Lower Saxony. Citizens were able to submit objections to this at the beginning of the year. The country is currently evaluating more than 10,000 statements. A discussion will then be scheduled in Lingen. A date has not yet been set for this, the Energy Ministry said. dpa