Source: Energy & Management Powernews, June 23, 2022
Longer nuclear lifetimes no solution to energy crisis CORE POWER. German Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) wants an "ideology-free" debate on longer nuclear lifetimes, a short study by Energy Brainpool sees it as an expensive dead end.
In Germany flames up against the backdrop of the Ukraine war a debate about term extensions for the last three still running nuclear power plants, which should finally go out of operation at the end of the year. Federal Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) has already dismissed the idea. A study commissioned by the eco-energy cooperative Green Planet Energy (formerly Greenpeace Energy) cites arguments as to why a lifetime extension is no help in the energy crisis.
"Lifetime extensions for existing reactors can actually be classified as less effective for the security of energy supply than sustainable investments in other power plant technologies," concludes analyst Michael Claußner of Energy Brainpool. Electricity from nuclear power currently supplies only 5% of demand. "Decades-old nuclear power plants are a risk and an obstacle to the expansion of renewable technologies," said Sönke Tangermann, board member at Green Planet Energy. Nuclear power plants cannot flexibly start up or shut down within minutes depending on power generation from the sun and wind, as gas-fired power plants can, for example.
Negative example France
The three remaining reactors in Germany - Isar 2, Emsland and Neckarwestheim 2 - are each more than 30 years old. "It has not been clarified how great the technical retrofitting requirement is for a lifetime extension - and also whether the nuclear power plants would have to be taken off the grid for a longer period of time to do so," Tangermann recalled. In any case, safety-relevant inspections and maintenance work that have been postponed so far would have to be made up for. In France, only 66% of the installed nuclear power plant capacity was available on average with similarly old reactors since 2018.
In April and May 2022, even historic lows were reached there: more than half of the installed power plant capacity in France was at a standstill during this period. The consequences: Electricity prices in the country shot up to historic highs - and France is likely to become a net electricity importer for the first time in a long time in 2022 instead of exporting surplus power, according to the analysis. For 2023, the operator group EDF expected, according to the study, only a production of 300 to 330 billion kWh, "the lowest value in 30 years," Energy Brainpool said.
According to the study, the high outage figures in France are due to planned maintenance measures and inspections as well as also strategic curtailments to save fuel. In addition, there are shutdowns due to damage that has occurred to the plants, such as corrosion. In hot summers, power production also has to be curtailed due to a lack of cooling water in rivers. "The problems of the lack of supply security can also be transferred to Germany," said Sönke Tangermann.
German power plant operators reject extension
In addition, there is a lack of personnel, spare parts and, above all, uranium fuel, because the nuclear power plant operators have so far firmly calculated an end of operation in December 2022. Because the new procurement of uranium would take up to two years, it cannot be ruled out that the reactors could only operate with phased throttled output until then.
The head of energy company RWE, Markus Krebber, called the discussion backward-looking. "We have to take care of the things that really solve the problems. Building gas infrastructure, saving gas and accelerating the energy transition," Krebber said. "We need to bring the new technologies on board and not have discussions about whether something will run a month longer," said the head of the operator of the Emsland nuclear power plant.
Nuclear fuel from Russia
As the German Environment Ministry (BMUV) has since announced, the uranium for the fuel rods in nuclear power plants comes from abroad. Import statistics from the European Supply Agency (ESA) show that about 20% of the uranium needed to run power plants in the European Union was supplied from the Russian Federation and 19% from Kazakhstan. This also applies to German power plants, as at least one of the operating companies also publicly confirmed.
Furthermore, further operation of the plants would only be possible if additional cutbacks were made in safety during operation of the nuclear power plants. Therefore, the three current plant owners reject the risk and see the state as the operator of the power plants in the event of an extension of the operating lives, according to the BMUV.
The factsheet on the brief analysis by Energy Brainpool is available on the Internet.
Author: Susanne Harmsen
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