The future State Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Economics, Stefan Wenzel (Greens), warns that longer lifetimes of nuclear power plants would increase dependence on Russia. “We are even more dependent on Russia for uranium and fuel elements than for gas,” he told Zeit Online.
This applies in particular to the Eastern European countries, but also to the USA, where alternative sources of fuel from Russia are currently being sought for 25 percent of the power plants. “And that would also apply to Germany if we continued to rely on nuclear power here,” he added.
In addition, the Ministry of Economic Affairs and the Environment has already examined in detail whether the continuation of nuclear power plants in the prevailing gas crisis could help. The result clearly shows that this is not the case. Wenzel explains that it would also not make sense to keep the nuclear power plants running for just a few months. Even if this means that no new fuel rods have to be procured.
“It may be technically possible to continue operating for a few more months with spent fuel elements, but the total amount of electricity produced remains the same. The fact is: the nuclear power plants have not had a TÜV for three years. They were last subjected to a thorough inspection thirteen years ago , which is mandatory every ten years,” Wenzel told Zeit Online.
The prospective state secretary adds that the continued operation of the nuclear power plants without TÜV would mean judicial disputes up to the Federal Constitutional Court. “That alone would take months. That’s why we should concentrate on the real problems on the gas market,” said Wenzel. He pleads for a meaningful discourse that focuses on the problems of the gas crisis.
Wenzel also warned against getting advice from the wrong people in the debate about the extension of the term. If, for example, the industry association Kerntechnik Deutschland advises that the remaining power plants should continue to run, then one has to see: “The chairman of Kerntechnik Deutschland, Thomas Seipolt, is the Managing Director of Nukem, which according to the commercial register is a subsidiary of the Russian state-owned company Rosatom,” he said. For He is therefore certain: “I would not seek advice from such institutions at the moment, because we are currently experiencing how geopolitical dependencies are being exploited.”
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