The Neckarwestheim nuclear power plant has been granted a deferral of execution due to the shortage of Russian gas. Some want him to stay, while others can’t wait for him to leave.
On a hillside above the Neckar River in southwestern Germany, about 40 km from Stuttgart, is the village of Neckarwestheim, its red terracotta roofs surrounded by vineyards and farmers’ fields, with streets leading to a central market square. Until now, so typical of a rural network in the German state of Baden-Württemberg. However, this town of 4,200 inhabitants has a defining characteristic: it is right next to one of the 3 remaining nuclear power plants in Germany.
The demanding situations facing this picturesque town illustrate how the energy crisis is affecting Europe’s largest economy, as Russia’s militarization of fuel has confounded Germany’s planned transition away from nuclear power.
On a cool, transparent autumn day, the steam clouds from the pressurized water reactor of the Neckarwestheim nutransparent power plant pale in front of the hill at the foot of which it stands. For those who were willing to live with a reactor as a neighbor, its arrival in the mid-70s was a golden age. The first reactor of the enclosure stopped generating electricity in 2011, while the moment has been operational since 1989.
“Everyone’s dreams have come true,” says Jochen Winkler, mayor of Neckarwestheim, from his view of the town’s main square, which will celebrate its 900th anniversary in 2023.
In more times, the people have flourished; Its population has doubled in the 4 decades that the power plant has been in place.
Winkler lists amenities for residents, from a gym and cultural center to subsidized daycare centers and even, occasionally, “welcome money” paid to newborns’ parents, all thanks to local business taxes collected from the power plant. It is owned by EnBW, a majority-state-owned, publicly traded company whose name stands for Energy Baden-Württemberg.
“We had a source of income equivalent to communities that are 3 or 4 times our size,” Winkler says.
But that is coming to an end, and Neckarwestheim II lives on loan, restraining the city’s generosity. Along with the other two remaining German nuclear power plants, it will be shut down until the end of the year, passing through the end of an 11-year phase-out process initiated by Angela Merkel’s government after the 2011 Fukushima crisis in Japan. .
However, the pressing need to secure winter energy materials, as Russia limited fuel flows to Europe, led the Berlin government to grant an execution deadline. The three nuclear reactors in operation: Neckarwestheim, Isar II in neighboring Bavaria and Emsland in the northwest. Near the Dutch border, they can now operate until mid-April next year.
Neckarwestheim’s contribution to Germany’s electricity is negligible: it generated 11 billion kWh of electricity in 2021. The reactor supplies one-sixth of the state’s total electric power input (from home to primary production operations, adding several auto plants) or two-thirds of the total electric power demand of the state’s five million homes.
“People who are afraid or have a challenge with nuclear power don’t live here. New citizens who have a challenge with this don’t move here,” Winkler says.
In fact, this applies to Melita Marinkovic, who walks her puppy with her 12-year-old son, who just moved here from Ludwigsburg, 15 miles to the south. “If there was a challenge with the reactor, they would also be affected in Ludwigsburg,” he said. Like many of his neighbors, he finds it’s unfortunate that the plant is turned off: “It’s a smart source of blank energy.
The perspectives of locals contrast with mainstream public opinion in Germany, where the existing anti-nuclear movement gained prominence after the Chernobyl crisis in 1986, as fears grew about the dangers of nuclear power.
Despite the extension of Germany’s transience, belligerent parties and environmental teams continue their protests. With an anti-nuclear badge on his sweater, Frank Wagner of the Federation of Citizen Action Groups in the middle of the Neckar fears that the existing nuclear expansion is the crux of the Matter.
“This step shows us that the dam has broken, making it easier to say in the coming months, ‘Oh, we still have power shortages, we want nuclear plants longer,'” Wagner says. It is also implied that no location for the permanent German nuclear waste garage has yet been discovered; The discussions are expected to last about 30 years.
Dr. Andre Baumann, Undersecretary of State for the Environment, Climate and Energy of Baden-Württemberg, insists that the April extension will be the last. The Green politician, whose component returned to national government last year as part of a three-party coalition with the Social Democrats (SPD) and the Free Democrats (FDP), insist no new fuel rods will be purchased for Neckarwestheim, which will operate beyond April.
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For some, April is too late. After a reactor protection check last year revealed cracks in the heating pipes of the power generators, two citizens filed a lawsuit. His case will be heard later this month.
The reactor’s owner, EnBW, says the plant has a “very high point of safety, also in foreign comparisons. “It adds that an earlier court ruling concluded that there is no explanation for interfering with the operation of the reactor. The state government, which is guilty of nuclear oversight, also says it is confident the plant can operate safely.
Apologizing for the cool temperature in his workplace (the Ministry of Environment has set its thermostats to 19°C), Baumann says: “We will have not what is important. We will have to continue saving energy. “
“We want to adapt our energy formula for the future. That means renewables, renewables, renewables. Installation prices are significantly lower than those for new nuclear, coal or fuel plants.
But the Energiewende, or transition force from fossil fuels to renewables, of which Germany was an early adopter, has stalled in recent years. Many complain that plans to move more wind force produced in the windy north by force – the hungry commercial south ran into obstacles as early as 2014.
While phasing out nuclear and fossil fuels was planned for years, the war forced national energy policy to move in the other direction. One-year agreement with Qatar to obtain new LNG flows from 2026.
Coal also continues to play a role. A recent lack of wind led Germany to burn more, accounting for 45% of all energy production. According to official statistics, this figure was 31% in the first part of 2022, when almost a part (49%) came from renewable sources. Analysts worry that the permanent shutdown of nuclear power, which accounted for 6% of total electricity production in the first six months of the year, could also leave a void.
In eckarwestheim, the government has developed two solar installations, but Winkler says the procedure for obtaining permits for new breakthroughs is lengthy and time-consuming.
Dr. Gottfried Kazenwadel is the fourth generation of his family circle to grow and grow wine nearby. The president of the local farm deal is sometimes in favor of avoiding nuclear force and, like many Germans, would prefer the country to push for progression. of renewable energies. He jokes that the people’s call was overlooked on the packaging of local agricultural products.
“Neckarwestheim was in the news,” he says, “especially when the reactor was built at the time, which wasn’t necessarily smart for marketing. “