Quietly steaming away, Robert Habeck’s new problem case. Isar 2, the nuclear power plant near Landshut, is in the final sprint, it should only run until December 31. But now, in its old age, the nuclear power plant is once again becoming a major dispute. Letters are written back and forth, the tone is unfriendly. It is about the time after December 31st.
According to the Green Energy Minister Habeck, the reactor should then become a “cold reserve”. Technically, this means: The power plant is shut down, it no longer generates electricity, but it is kept in a state in which it can be connected to the grid again within a week. It’s similar when a nuclear power plant is shut down for routine checks. But Habeck wants to get through the winter like this. If there are power bottlenecks in Europe, Isar 2 should continue steaming beyond December 31st, at the latest until mid-April. The operating company, the Eon subsidiary Preussen-Elektra, is to be compensated for these reserve services.
But she doesn’t agree at all.
A letter will be published in Berlin on Wednesday, written by Preussen-Elektra boss Guido Knott. The project is too risky and technically not feasible. After all, the power plant is in stretching operation. The fuel rods are largely used up in such a stretching operation, with the last remainder being used to generate electricity. In such a case, “a flexible increase or throttling of the power is no longer possible,” he argues. There is also “no empirical value whatsoever” when it comes to restarting a power plant during stretching. “Testing a start-up procedure that has never been practiced before should not coincide with a critical state of the power supply,” writes Knott on Tuesday. The same is “not compatible with our safety culture”.
He gets the answer on Wednesday, it is no less juicy. The sender is Habeck’s State Secretary Patrick Graichen. “It seems to me that there are still misunderstandings,” he says, despite all the previous discussions. “The aim is for the reserve to be called up with sufficient advance notice,” he writes. And it’s not about flexible starting and throttling, “unlike what is suggested in your letter”. In other words, if the reactor is actually needed, it should steam away for a few more weeks, as it is currently doing. The ministry is also presenting a solution to the problem of stretching operations: if necessary, the reactor core could be reconfigured. In such a case, he can run a little longer.
What if Isar 2 just doesn’t go along with it?
Thus, less than four months before the start of Operation Winter Reserve, the operator and the government are irreconcilable.
In the Eon group, they had been pawing their hooves for a long time, they wanted clarity about the future fate of the reactor. After all, the end of a reactor needs to be planned well in advance, including initial work for dismantling. Isar-2 boss Carsten Müller had already declared in May that he would only accept a term extension of “three to five years”. At an expert hearing in the Bavarian state parliament, he categorically ruled out even continued operation for a few months. “We wouldn’t go along with that,” said Müller. There was no talk of a reserve operation at that time.
So what if Isar 2 just doesn’t go along with it? There is obviously potential for threats, as State Secretary Graichen indicates in his letter. “As far as I know,” he writes, “the last inspection, which usually takes place once a year, was carried out for the Isar 2 nuclear power plant in October 2021.” In view of the impending end, the operators would probably have saved themselves this revision. But actually, as it says between the lines, it would be due next month. Just as a hint.