Energy crisis: Ukraine offers nuclear power to Germany – foreign policy

let’s hope nuclear disposal firmly – and end up resorting to nuclear energy from abroad?

Maybe! Ukraine’s Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko has offered to supply Germany with nuclear power.

“In the field of decarbonization (Moving away from the use of carbon-based energy sources, ed.) Ukraine moves in a different logic than Germany,” Halushchenko writes in a recent guest article for the “workweek”. Thus, more than 50 percent of Ukraine’s electricity is generated by nuclear power plants.

“This means that Ukraine, which has synchronized its power grid with the Association of European Transmission System Operators since March 16, can become an electricity subcontractor for Germany,” the minister said.

Minister: You can “support in herculean task”

This creates “a kind of insurance cushion in times of declining weather-related generation from solar and wind power plants.” Another advantage of Ukraine is the time difference of one hour with Berlin, which means that the energy consumption peaks differ.

Turning away from Russian energy is “a gigantic challenge” for Germany and is becoming “more and more urgent”, the minister wrote in the “Wirtschaftswoche”. “But Ukraine can support Germany in this herculean task.”

Soviet-designed nuclear power plants with a total capacity of more than 14 gigawatts are operated in Ukraine. However, six blocks at Europe’s largest nuclear power plant at Enerhodar, near Zaporizhia, have been under Russian control since March.

With the Russian invasion four months ago, due to the fighting, the flight movement and the economic crisis, electricity consumption also fell massively. Kyiv currently exports electricity to Poland and Moldova.

Political Zoff in Germany

In Germany, meanwhile, the dispute continues over the possible continuity of the operation of the three nuclear power plants that are still connected to the network.

In addition to CDU leader Friedrich Merz (66) and CSU leader Markus Söder (55), Finance Minister Christian Lindner (43, FDP) also put longer running times of power plants on the line. nuclear power and called for an “open debate” on the matter. In an emergency situation, it’s about “physically securing our power supply anytime, anywhere,” says Lindner.

But his coalition partners have recently been reluctant to do so. A spokesman for the Ministry of Economic Affairs referred to the assessment of Robert Habeck (52, Greens), according to which continuing the operation of power plants beyond the closing date of December 31, 2022 would also be irresponsible for reasons of security.

Most Germans also advocate the continued operation of nuclear power plants. in a Survey commissioned by ARD on Thursday, 61 percent of participants supported an extension of the deadline.