That Didn't Last Long: Germany Pays For Admission to Gen IV Nuclear Program.

The current federal chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) has announced the intention to delay the formation of a new government until November 9, the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall. Until then, the present government will be still formally in office. Last week was the last cabinet meeting in Berlin (on October 7), but as to my knowledge there were no energy items on the agenda. In fact until a new chancellor (Merkel) is formally elected by the new legislature, the Bundestag, and until she has then nominated new ministers, probably nothing of importance will happen.

Before the elections all three parties that will now form the new government had announced to vote for a life extension of the German nuclear power plants when they came into power. Now, the first discussions among energy politicians in these parties indicate that this might not be the case for all nuclear power plants. The four oldest '69 type BWRs, Brunsbüttel (KKB), Krümmel (KKK), Isar 1 (KKI 1) and Philippsburg 1 (KKP 1), have faced strong criticism. In fact, it may be only the newer reactors, and especially the PWRs, that could benefit from the prolongation. However, the chairmen of the four big utilities are demanding a life time extension for all 17 nuclear power plants. They seem to be prepared to deliver about half of their profits resulting from such a decision to the German government for research into renewables and radioactive waste disposal.


The German anti-coal environmental lobby supports the cause, because in their view nuclear plant life extension would help prevent construction of the 28 new coal fired plants currently being planned by German utilities.

In spite of the government's decision not to build new nuclear power plants in Germany, the current (and probably also future) federal minister for economics, Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg (CSU) spent EUR1.3 million on 1 October to join the Generation-4 nuclear reactor research project. He said that by joining the initiative the government would be able to evaluate the safety of nuclear power plants being built in neighbouring countries. German antinuclear associations judged the decision as a sign of the new government's intention to build new nuclear power plants in Germany and strongly criticised the decision.