After 42 years of commercial operation, Block II of the oldest French nuclear power plant in Fessenheim on the German border will finally go offline at the end of June. In view of the immense dangers posed by nuclear energy, the German Federation for the Environment and Nature Conservation (BUND) is calling for an immediate, worldwide nuclear phase-out.
Olaf Bandt, BUND chairman: “Nuclear power poses a permanent risk and the danger increases with age and wear and tear of the power plants. We call for an immediate worldwide exit from this high-risk technology and the disarmament of all atomic bomb arsenals. This threat to people and nature must finally end – also in Germany. Despite the nuclear phase-out in Germany, we remain an inglorious part of the nuclear chain with the Lingen fuel element factory and the Gronau uranium enrichment plant. ”
Nuclear power is not only unpredictable, it is also extremely uneconomical. This was recently shown in the nuclear state of France. Barely three months after the announcement that up to six new nuclear reactors would be built, the French government backed off in early 2020. They want to make a decision about it in two years at the earliest, but maybe France will in future also rely 100 percent on renewable energies.
Bandt: “The construction of new nuclear power plants takes decades, is unprofitable and goes beyond all cost estimates – and the storage of radioactive waste is not yet priced in. Nuclear power passed its zenith a long time ago, the future lies in renewable energies. “
While the German nuclear power plant Wyhl was successfully prevented on one side of the Upper Rhine in 1977, the Fessenheim nuclear power plant went online in 1978 on the other side of the Rhine. On June 30, 2020, Block II of France’s oldest nuclear power plant will be switched off, which is only 25 kilometers southwest of Freiburg am Breisgau. Block I has been offline since February of this year.
Stefan Auchter, BUND regional manager in Freiburg: “The region breathes a sigh of relief: With the shutdown of France’s oldest nuclear power plant, a breakdown reactor, located in the middle of an earthquake zone and on one of the largest groundwater reservoirs in Europe, the risk of nuclear contamination is considerably reduced. That is why we will also chill three bottles of sparkling wine: The first we drink when the nuclear power plant is shut down on June 30, the second when the fuel assemblies are removed from the stores in a few years, and we keep the third for a million Years, when the nuclear waste from Fessenheim no longer shines. “
(Press release: BUND Regional Association Southern Upper Rhine, June 26, 2020)
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