German Bundestag, Plenarprotokoll 20/95, pp.
11423-11424.
Honored President. Valued colleagues.
For over 60 years, the German nuclear power plants have
supplied our country with safe, economic [preiswert],
and sustainable electricity. In 15 days, this German success story shall go to
an end. In Bavaria, the nuclear plant Isar 2 goes from the network after 35
years of productive operation in which 404 billion kilowatt-hours of
electricity were produced. That corresponds to nearly the entire amount of
electricity generated in Germany by photovoltaic, generated from just one
nuclear power plant. From this place, a hearty thank you to all the nuclear
power workers who have made possible this engine of prosperity.
In so far as one wants a well-to-do, competitive industrial
nation, and does not have the good fortune to be geographically blessed with
geothermal or much water, one needs to produce in another way his reliable and
economic electricity. That then occurs by means of burning carbon materials or
by the use of nuclear fission, since contingent energy like wind and sun are
not compatible with the attribute “reliable”. All nations worldwide follow this
pattern; there are no exceptions. The laws of physics are stronger than
ideology.
Germany is therein the wrong-way driver of global energy
policy. Nowhere is this so clear as in the question of nuclear energy. Despite
a global energy crisis, the Federal government clings to the withdrawal
decision and wants next month to take from the network nuclear power plants
with 4,000 megawatts of economic and low CO2 output. By 2022, these
three nuclear power plants have generated around 32 terawatt-hours of energy.
This energy in the coming year will be bitterly lacking for industry and our
citizens.
To generate these amounts of electricity in Germany, 10,000
wind energy installations, or eight to ten gas power plants, need to be erected
as a replacement. Here, we put the question, dear government: Where are these
replacement constructions? To where can I drive to see them? To where can I drive
to reach them? Then comes the answer: This replacement simply does not exist.
In the past year, 2022, despite all the money squandering in Germany, just a
net 213, instead of 10,000, windmills were erected – 213 instead of 10,000
installations which were certainly needed so as to replace the energy of just
three remaining nuclear power plants. And how many gas power plants were built?
None were built; a replacement was not made. That means, you take production
from the network without making a replacement. The consequences are further energy scarcities and rising
prices for taxpayers and consumers who already stand before financial ruin as a
result of other government measures and the inflation of the common currency.
How does it look outside of Germany? You may want to deny
it, yet nuclear power is economic. France wants to build fourteen new nuclear
power plants, Poland six, the Netherlands two, Czechia two, Slovakia two,
Hungary two, the United Kingdom four, etc. – yes, that can be applauded. – One sees:
All responsible governments take care for reliable, economic and green electricity
for their citizens and for their industry.
Maik Aussendorf (Greens): They are subvention diggers!
And what does our government do? They take economic and
reliable electricity from the market and burn much more expensive gas. In the
end, private and industrial electricity customers pay the bill – to the harm of
the entire Republic.
Our Economy Minister hoped for a mild winter, and he got it.
Stephan Brandner (AfD): Thanks to climate change! Otherwise, there would have been nothing!
He will nevertheless not be able to rely on it. The gas
supply is indeed stable at a high level. That however is based on that we have
simply bought out the market for gas from the developing and rising countries. The
consequence is that countries in southern Asia, as for example Pakistan, have
announced to quadruple their energy production from coal power. The consequence
of your ideological withdrawal from nuclear power plants is then thus a global
increase of CO2 emissions – and that, even though you here ever,
ever and ever again stress that for you the CO2 removal is the most
important of all. Apparently, that is not so.
The result: After 20 years of energy transition, the
citizens know that the supposed minimal additional cost of an ice cream cone was
a willful falsehood. The promises, that other than the generation methods
nothing will change and price and reliability will remain the same, are exposed
and seen through. Yet if the people are simply asked what to them in regards
the energy supply is really important – electricity without nuclear powr plants
on one side, or economic, reliable and truly green electricity on the other
side – then is the vote of the sovereign clear, namely a distinct affirmation
for nuclear power.
Stephan Brandner (AfD): And that is right!
If electricity and energy in Germany are thus to be economic
and reliable, if our industry is to meet with competitive parameters, and if our citizens are not to be impoverished
by their electricity bill, then this nation needs to go the way of other people’s
communities and provide large quantities of economic, reliable, modern and by all means also low CO2 energy for the welfare of the
state.
Wolfgang Kubicki (FDP): Herr colleague, please come to a conclusion.
That means: Continued operation of the three remaining
installations, ordering new fuel rods and, yes, an affirmation for construction
of new nuclear installations.
[trans: tem]
