WNE2023 | COUNTRY PAVILLIONS Germany: Exit from the nuclear stage
Left: AKW Grafenrheinfeld near Schweinfurt is just one of Germany’s reactors that now needs to be fully decommissioned.
The nuclear phaseout was implemented despite the European
energy crisis precipitated by the conflict in Ukraine and a subsequent decision to ramp up capacity from coal-fired generation to replace that lost from a shortage of gas and the nuclear closures. The plan to withdraw from nuclear followed the 2011 Fukushima
With Germany’s decision to shut down its last three reactors nuclear activities in Europe’s largest economy now turn to decommissioning and disposal.
Earlier this year Germany permanently shut down the last three of its commercial nuclear power reactors. E.ON’s Isar 2, EnBW’s Neckarwestheim 2 and RWE’s Emsland plants had a collective capacity of more than 4 GW and contributed some 6% towards meeting Germany’s energy demand.
Daiichi disaster at which point Germany has been operating 17 reactors. However, in the following year eight reactors were permanently shut down, including Phillipsburg 1, Neckarwestheim 1, Isar 1, Unterweser, Biblis A&B, Brunsbüttel and Krümmel. The remaining nine reactors were shut down over the following years although the last three operating units were afforded modest extensions on the original schedule. It has been noted that the withdrawal from nuclear is not
universally welcomed given the climate crisis, but Germany’s nuclear activities nonetheless now turn to decommissioning and disposal. BGE is the federally-owned company with responsibility
for the radioactive waste disposal sites at the Asse II mine and the Konrad and Morsleben repositories, in addition to the decommissioning of a site at the Gorleben mine. It is currently engaged in searching for a repository site for high- level radioactive waste. Earlier this year BGE announced that construction work on the Konrad repository has reached an advanced stage.
Italy: A rethink on nuclear?
Italy stepped away from nuclear power in the 1990s but there are signs that a revival may be on the cards with SMRs opening the door to a new play for nuclear capacity.
Italy is notable as the only G8 country which does not currently have a civil nuclear power sector. Although at one time the country had four operating reactors and was a leading nuclear power- producing country in the 1960s, the last two reactors were shut down following the Chornobyl accident. Nonetheless, although Italy has ostensibly turned away from nuclear power its electricity system still relies on imported nuclear generation from France. This supplies around 6% of Italy’s electricity needs. Since the 1990 close downs of the last two reactors, the BWR at
Caoroso and the PWR at Enrico Fermi/Trino Vercellese, the bulk of nuclear activity has been associated with decommissioning and disposal. Decommissioning of the nuclear island of the Enrico Fermi plant is almost complete, for example, and next year the site is due to be released for new development as a greenfield site. The country has attempted to resurrect a nuclear programme
several times but with limited success. The government had intended for nuclear to contribute around a quarter of the national electricity demand by 2030, but a referendum in 2011 saw this idea shelved. However, more recently nuclear is enjoying something of a resurgence and the Italian utility Edison recently
presented a development strategy to 2040 that includes “the ambition of developing new nuclear power if the conditions are created for his return to Italy”. Edison says it believes nuclear energy can play a key role in achieving European Union carbon neutrality targets, in particular SMR technology where it aims to launch two nuclear plants of 340 MW each between 2030 and 2040, likely based on EDF’s NUWARD design. In March his year, EDF, Edison, Ansaldo Energia and Ansaldo Nucleare signed a Letter of Intent for new nuclear development.
Above: The decommissioned Enrico Fermi nuclear plant in Trino, Italy
64 | WNE Special Edition |
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