Germany shuts down its last three nuclear reactors

BERLIN, 15 Apr. (DPA/EP) –

This Saturday, 62 years after the entry into operation in Germany of the first commercial nuclear power plant, the last three reactors that were working are disconnected.

The definitive exit from nuclear electricity generation, however, continues to be the subject of intense debate in politics, both for and against the measure.

While Environment Minister Steffi Lemke, of the Greens party, has expressed her relief at the measure, the Liberal Democrat Party (FDP), also a member of the government coalition, considers it a “strategic mistake.”

“Abandoning nuclear power makes Germany safer,” Lemke told DPA. “The risks of nuclear power are ultimately uncontrollable in the event of an accident,” she added.

Instead, Finance Minister and FDP leader Christian Lindner believes the three nuclear power plants should remain in reserve and not be dismantled. “If we were to start them up in the next two or three years, we would have that possibility,” Lindner argued in an interview with the Welt television channel. Lindler has held the Greens responsible for thwarting that possibility.

In reality, the nuclear power plants should have been taken off the grid at the end of last year, according to a decision taken by the previous government, led by Angela Merkel, after the Fukushima reactor disaster.

However, due to the energy crisis caused by the war in Ukraine, the current coalition led by Social Democrat Olaf Scholz decided last year to keep the three reactors running during the winter.

The closing of the last plant is scheduled for shortly before midnight this Saturday. It is not clear which of the three reactors will be the last, whether Bavaria’s Isar 2, Lower Saxony’s Emsland or Baden-Württemberg’s Neckarwestheim 2.

Traders have prepared for the deadline well in advance. The power of the reactors will be gradually reduced and then the generator will be disconnected from the grid and the reactor will be completely shut down.

The environmental organization Greenpeace celebrated the abandonment of nuclear power at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, where it unfurled a banner with the iconic anti-nuclear figure and the slogan “Nuclear power? No thanks”, as well as a sword on a replica of a dinosaur. On the belly of the dinosaur read “German Nuclear Power” and “Defeated April 15, 2023!”

Greenpeace has thus celebrated that it is a “good day” for climate protection and a success for the anti-nuclear movement. Greenpeace Germany executive director Martin Kaiser also demanded that the federal government now focus on the safe disposal of nuclear waste accumulated over decades that will be radioactive for millions of years.

At the Brandenburg Gate itself, some people also protested against the closure of the nuclear power plants. The Nuklearia association had announced in an appeal that it wanted to give a positive tint to nuclear energy. “We believe that nuclear power is the best way to preserve our prosperity and, at the same time, protect nature and the climate,” he said.

In the city of Lingen, near one of the shutdown reactors, anti-nuclear activists have gathered in front of the ANF fuel assembly factory, which belongs to the French group Framatome, to also demand the cessation of nuclear fuel production. A joint venture between Framatome and the Russian state company Rosatom plans to produce fuel rods for nuclear power plants in Eastern Europe in Lingen.

The operating company of the fuel assembly plant rejected the requests to close the plant: “Framatome Advanced Nuclear Fuels (ANF) has an unlimited operating license. The plant has been producing fuel assemblies for more than 45 years with a high level of safety and has complied at all times with all legal requirements and procedures”, the company pointed out.