“Resistance reloaded”

The beginning of the decommissioning of the nuclear plant Neckarwestheim should have been a moment of joy for all anti-nuclear activists in the German federal state of Baden-Württemberg but instead it was met with protests once again, Josef Kelnberger writes in Süddeutsche Zeitung. Protesters argue that the plant’s decommissioning is being executed in the cheapest possible way in order to limit state-owned operator EnBW’s expenses, Kelnberger explains. Franz Untersteller, the state’s Green environment minister, assured critics that no safety compromises would be made: “Nuclear power is a high-risk technology also when it comes to a phase-out – we know that and so does EnBW,” Untersteller said. The demolition of Germany’s 17 remaining nuclear plants is estimated to cost about 19 billion euros, Kelnberger adds.

Read the article in German here. 

For more information, see the CLEW dossier The challenges of Germany’s nuclear phase-out.