Germany will keep in operation during the winter two nuclear power plants, which were scheduled to be closed at the end of this year. For any eventuality, says the Minister of Economy, Habeck.
The grid is stable, the electricity supply is assured – Economy Minister Robert Habeck said on Monday that Germany has plenty of electricity to get through the winter.
And yet, two nuclear power plants; Isar 2 and Neckarwestheim will remain open, just in case. This was the result of the stress test, which German Minister Habeck presented on Monday evening in Berlin.
“A high-risk technology”
The two plants in southern Germany will remain in operation as a backup until April 2023. Then they too will be taken off the grid, Habeck said. Nuclear power remains a high-risk technology, and among other things, it is not sustainable, the environmentalist minister argued. This is also shown by the example of France, where currently half of the nuclear power plants produce electricity, as they need to be maintained, or due to drought. “The main problem at the moment is the climate change of nuclear power in France,” Habeck said. The Rhône River is too warm and the water level in it is too low to cool the nuclear power plants to the required extent.
The issue of nuclear power plants is one of the topics of disagreement between the coalition partners in Germany. Finance Minister Christian Lindner’s Liberals are in favor of obtaining energy through nuclear power plants. The Greens, from which the Minister of Economy and Energy, Robert Habeck, also comes, are against it. Habeck says that, in addition to the high risk of technology, keeping the plants beyond this winter makes no sense, because until next winter Germany will build other liquefied gas energy supply capacity via the Baltic Sea and the North Sea. “To present nuclear power as a solution is factually and technically incorrect.” Habeck said that even if they were not shut down at the end of the year as planned, there would not be enough nuclear plants to meet all of Germany’s energy needs.
Habeck said that he himself does not count on supplies from Russia. “If there is one thing that is certain, it is that Russia cannot be trusted,” said the German minister. Last Saturday, the Russian giant Gazprom did not resume supplying Germany with gas from the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline on the pretext that there is a defect in the turbine.
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