Germany’s former reactor operators lukewarm on Merz’s nuclear “dismantling moratorium” idea

A proposal from Germany’s likely next chancellor for a “moratorium on dismantling” the remaining decommissioned nuclear reactors in the country has been met with reluctance by former nuclear plant operators, newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung reported. At a press conference the day after the Christian Democrat Union (CDU) topped the polls in Germany’s snap elections, party leader Friedrich Merz said it was unlikely that the country will return to nuclear power in the foreseeable future, as the remaining reactors "are not like a desk lamp that you can turn on and off." Reactivating the idle plants would "certainly not be decided and implemented during this term," the conservative leader added. However, he said a moratorium on the deconstruction of old plants was "necessary" to keep options open for a re-use at a later point in time.

A spokesperson for former nuclear plant operator EnBW said all of its five nuclear power stations are in the process of being dismantled. “We have obtained and used the respective licenses for all of them,” the spokesperson said, adding that operators are obliged by Germany’s Nuclear Law to “immediately” commence deconstruction after plants are taken offline. EnBW head Georg Stamatelopoulos said earlier in February that deconstruction works at the company’s Neckarwestheim 2 plant, one of the three last reactors that were shuttered in Germany in April 2023, were ongoing. Stopping or even reversing this process would take many years and enormous investment, Stamatelopoulos said.

According to the newspaper, other former reactor operators also pointed at their legal obligations to ensure swift deconstruction. Energy company E.ON, owner of the plant Isar 2, argued that “anything is possible” as restarting the plants would be “primarily a political question”. However, it too said that “it is clear that this would be very challenging from a technical and regulatory point of view” and take years to implement. Another, former operator RWE said that re-firing nuclear reactors would come with “substantial regulatory, financial, and staffing hurdles.”

German nuclear power critic Mycle Schneider, coordinator of the World Nuclear Industry Status Report, said that recommissioning old and contaminated nuclear reactors would practically almost amount to commissioning new ones due to the many technical requirements for modern plants, which would make little sense economically. “At some point you just have to draw a line,” Schneider argued.

During the election campaign, Merz’s conservative CDU/CSU alliance promised to consider options for re-activating Germany’s nuclear plants and other options to employ modern nuclear technology again in the future. However, Merz’s favoured coalition partner, the Social Democrats (SPD), have said they will remain steadfast on the nuclear phase-out, which in its current form was originally decided by the CDU/CSU. Besides the former operators, other analysts and researchers have voiced doubts over the feasibility and benefits of such a step, which would be a long process full with legal uncertainties, public and political opposition and very high investment costs.