In the debate about a TÜV report that considers the continued operation of the Isar 2 nuclear power plant possible, SPD state leader Florian von Brunn renewed his doubts – and referred to the business relationships between the TÜV and the Free State. Brunn refers to a question from the state parliament from December 2015. The questioner was Thorsten Faithr (free voters), who is now Minister for the Environment and whose house commissioned the TÜV report on Isar 2. The state government’s response shows that the Free State billed TÜV Süd for its expert services in connection with Isar 2 between 1990 and 2015, almost 107 million euros – with the costs being paid by the operators. If you add the former Isar 1, Grafenrheinfeld and Gundremmingen piles, it was more than 630 million euros. “A lot of money” says SPD leader Brunn. When asked whether Isar 2 should continue, he therefore sees the TÜV as “self-conscious”. “No one believes that TÜV Süd will find deficiencies in their own work there,” said Brunn on Sunday.
With the TÜV report, Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) recently campaigned for the continued operation of the power plant near Landshut, which is scheduled to shut down on December 31, 2022. It states that there are no security concerns about a longer term. A diagnosis that also calls into question the legal opinion of a Hamburg law firm. The lawyers hold the TÜV a “complimentary report” that is intended as a political “weapon”.
The law firm, which in turn prepared its report for Greenpeace, is the office of the lawyer Michael Günther, who, according to the law firm’s website, was on the Greenpeace board in the 1990s. “Greenpeace commissions Greenpeace – really ingenious and of course totally independent and serious,” comments CSU Secretary General Martin Huber ironically on Twitter, garnished with smileys that laugh with tears. Söder had reacted similarly to SZ demand. “A lawyer from Hamburg paid by Greenpeace wants to know better than the TÜV? You don’t have to comment further on that,” said the CSU boss.