As the last of Germany’s nuclear power plants stand idle, their operators are skeptical about the possibility of reactivating the shut down reactors. “Since 2011, it’s been clear to everyone here: the operation of this power plant is finally over” said Heiko Ringel, site manager of RWE in Bavaria’s Gundremmingen, to the “Spiegel”.
“Not in the phase of sadness are we anymore” Ringel said. “The staff doesn’t believe in a reactivation.” RWE had received the permission for the decommissioning and would not hold back on it, Ringel added, “That would not be legally possible.”
Gundremmingen was once Germany’s largest nuclear power plant; Block C went offline at the end of 2021, as one of the six last German nuclear reactors.
The head of Eon’s nuclear subsidiary, Preussen-Elektra, Guido Knott, said that in 2023, it had been made clear that the exit in the midst of the energy crisis “was a great mistake”. Now, however, Preussen-Elektra wants to dismantle its own power plants “quickly and as efficiently as possible”.
The EnBW consortium from Baden-Württemberg had already stated that it no longer saw a basis for reactivating its reactors. “The decommissioning status of our five nuclear power plants is practically irreversible” it said. “A discussion about the further use of nuclear power has been rendered obsolete for us in the background of this.”
In the upcoming Bundestag election campaign, both the CDU and CSU, as well as the AfD and FDP, are proposing a renaissance of nuclear energy. The Union is announcing a review of reactivating the last shut down nuclear power plants. The AfD wants to get back into nuclear energy. The FDP wants to make it possible to reactivate the existing reactors, leaving the decision to the operators.