It is technically feasible to continue operating the Isar 2 nuclear power plant beyond December of this year. This emerges from a report by TÜV Süd for the Bavarian state government. The auditors thus contradict the arguments put forward by Economics Minister Robert Habeck.
Bavaria’s Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) recently emphasized that continued operation of the Bavarian nuclear power plant was feasible. The expert opinion reported by “ntv” now supports this statement. The report was commissioned by the Bavarian Ministry of the Environment.
It states that when Tüv Süd was active as an expert, “there were no indications that the necessary precautionary measures could be called into question”. Since the last security check, “there have been no new findings that would give rise to concerns that security deficits would arise when a new security check was carried out”.
It was only on Wednesday that a spokesman for the Ministry of Economics referred to the assessment of Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck that continued operation of the power plants beyond December 31, 2022 was also irresponsible for safety reasons.
The TÜV Süd experts do not accept this argument. For Isar 2, it could not be deduced from the failure to carry out a review in 2019 that “the necessary damage precautions are no longer given”. Even in the event of a “deliberate crash of a large commercial aircraft” on Isar 2, no release of radioactive substances is to be expected. Apart from “routine repair measures”, no measures are necessary to ensure continued operation.
According to Tüv Süd, without new fuel elements, continued operation of Isar 2 would be possible until August 2023 – initially in normal continued operation for 80 days, then for a further three months by “relocating” the existing fuel elements. In total, an additional amount of electricity of around 5160 gigawatt hours can be generated. In addition, the experts write that they consider “based on our experience in the assessment of subsequent fuel element deliveries that a delivery of fresh fuel elements within 12 months is possible”. The TÜV Süd concludes that if the order is placed in good time, operations could continue beyond autumn 2023.
With regard to the storage capacities on the site of the nuclear power plant, TÜV Süd writes that “at least five more operating cycles” of Isar 2 are possible “before the capacity of the on-site interim storage facility is exhausted”. The current operating cycle of Isar 2 is given by the operator PreussenElektra as a good 14 months.
