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Germany has completed its nuclear phase-out: the last three nuclear power plants went offline on Saturday evening. This has been announced by the operators of the Meiler Isar 2 in Bavaria, Neckarwestheim 2 in Baden-Württemberg and Emsland in Lower Saxony. For the nuclear power plants to be considered shut down, some technical measures were necessary after the generators were disconnected from the public electricity grid.
Until the last possible hour, the operators had still produced electricity through nuclear fission – according to the operator, the Neckarwestheim 2 power station was the last to go offline at 11:59 p.m. “We are working in accordance with the law and it is clear that using electricity from April 16 would be a criminal offense,” said the federal chief nuclear regulator, head of the department of nuclear safety and radiation protection at the Ministry of the Environment, Gerrit Niehaus , the German news agency.
It is the beginning of a new energy era: opponents of nuclear energy celebrated the historic step on Saturday with festivals in Berlin and elsewhere. Several hundred people came to a “decoupling party” in Neckarwestheim and the Bund Naturschutz and Greenpeace also organized a “nuclear phase-out party” in Munich. Hundreds of opponents of nuclear energy demonstrated at the Lingen nuclear power plant in Lower Saxony against the ANF fuel plant, which is also located there, and which belongs to the French Framatome group, and also demanded its closure.
Operator expresses concern
However, at the Isar 2 nuclear power plant in Essenbach, Bavaria, there was dismay at the exit. According to Guido Knott, chairman of the operator group Preussen-Elektra, the closure is an emotional moment for the employees of the furnace: “Today, after 50 years, electricity production from nuclear energy at Preussen-Elektra will end. We all like this very much and it also affects me personally.”
The group had previously explained the process in detail, which is practically the same for all three reactors: after disconnecting from the power grid, the reactor must be shut down within about fifteen minutes. Then it is “cooled”. This means that the temperature in the system is reduced to ambient temperature within approximately twelve hours. About nine hours after the shutdown, no steam should be visible above the cooling tower.
Decision by the Merkel government
The government of Chancellor Angela Merkel (68, CDU) decided to phase out nuclear energy after the nuclear disaster in Fukushima, Japan in 2011. Actually, it should have been completed at the end of last year. Because of the Russian offensive war against Ukraine and the resulting energy crisis, the current traffic light coalition of Merkel’s successor Olaf Scholz (SPD) decided last fall to keep the reactors running through the winter until mid-April.
But even after nuclear power has been phased out, the challenges of dealing with the risky technology remain. First of all, the piles must be dismantled as soon as possible. The Atomic Energy Act states that the nuclear power plants must be dismantled immediately, says nuclear regulator Niehaus. “That means on the one hand continuing with the approval process for dismantling, but also taking the first permitted steps towards dismantling.” (SDA)
Source: Blick
I am Amelia James, a passionate journalist with a deep-rooted interest in current affairs. I have more than five years of experience in the media industry, working both as an author and editor for 24 Instant News. My main focus lies in international news, particularly regional conflicts and political issues around the world.
