Foreign Affairs

‘Technically Unfeasible’: German Nuclear Operator Admits Government Plan Makes No Sense

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The operator of a German nuclear power plant, PreussenElektra, rejected the government’s plan to send its plant into reserve operation in case of an energy emergency because it considers the proposal to be technically unfeasible, German media outlet BR24 reported.

PreussenElektra, the operator of Essenbach’s Isar 2 plant, declared in a letter to the German government that Economy Minister Robert Habeck’s Monday proposal to close two nuclear reactors at the end of 2022 while keeping them ready to go online at a moment’s notice to address future electricity shortages was “technically unfeasible,” according to BR24. The operator said that the proposal to quickly restart the nuclear plants to address an energy emergency after shutting them down could be unsafe.

The operator, which is a subsidiary of the German utility company E.ON, also told the Economy Ministry on Tuesday that the state’s national electrical grid stress test determined that the power generated by the three remaining nuclear plants is necessary to help the nation get through winter. Germany is working to stockpile and save fuel to prevent winter shortages as Russia continues to shut off natural gas flows through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, blaming Western sanctions for halted gas deliveries.

PreussenElektra announced in August that the plant’s power output is not flexible, reported BR24. Such limitations prevent the reactor from starting up again to provide power at such short notice if the plant is shut down at the end of the year per the government’s mandate.

The three nuclear facilities account for about 6% of the nation’s electricity, as natural gas is most widely used throughout Germany, according to German government figures. Habeck, who is a member of Germany’s Green Party, told citizens in August that keeping the plants running would only save about 2% of German gas use, Reuters reported.

Germany and its anti-nuclear Green Party have been working to phase out nuclear power following the 2011 Fukushima nuclear incident, according to the BBC. Local governments across the nation are calling on their citizens to take cold showers and are turning off the lights in public areas to save natural gas, its main source of fuel, according to The Guardian.

The German Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection and PreussenElektra did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.