The three German nuclear power plants are to remain online until mid-April. But at least for two weeks, the Akw in Lingen will probably not be there.
The nuclear power plant in Lingen, Lower Saxony, will have to be taken off the grid for two weeks next winter for maintenance work. As the "Bild" newspaper reports, citing a request from the Union faction to the federal government, the power plant must be "reconfigured" at the end of January. Power plant operator RWE therefore specified to the newspaper that the fuel elements will be reconfigured. The timing of this "routine process" is not yet certain.
In addition to the nuclear power plant in Lingen, the other two German nuclear power plants, Neckarwestheim between Heilbronn and Stuttgart and Isar 2 in Munich, will also remain in operation. Actually, they should be switched off at the end of the year. However, Chancellor Olaf Scholz then decided to let it continue until mid-April. The coalition partner FDP and the Union had demanded that. The two parties are also calling for new fuel rods to be ordered in order to continue operating the nuclear power plants in the winter of 2023/24. However, Scholz ruled that out.
All nuclear power plants are also still pending a safety review, which was issued because of the planned end of operations. The three power plants currently supply six percent of Germany's electricity requirements. Union and FDP had demanded continued operation in order to prevent a further increase in electricity prices. In addition, the generation of electricity from gas should be reduced. In addition, Germany will probably export electricity to France in the winter, where around half of the nuclear reactors are not in operation due to technical problems.
It was disputed whether the nuclear power plant in Lingen was needed at all in winter. A stress test commissioned by Green Economics Minister Robert Habeck had shown that it would be unnecessary. Especially since it would be conceivable that too much electricity would then be fed in in the north and the grid could be overloaded - namely when the wind turbines produce a lot of energy. Since you can't just switch nuclear power on and off, the wind turbines might have to stand still. Conversely, it is also conceivable that nuclear power could be urgently needed when there is no wind.
