Nuclear shutdown may cost 2bn euros a year, German minister warns

Apr 15, 2011, 10:23 GMT

Berlin - A rapid closedown of Germany's nuclear power industry may cost the country 2 billion euros (2.8 billion dollars) annually as engineers rebuild the electricity supply grid, a minister warned Friday.

Polls show a majority of the population are eager to close their nation's 17 nuclear power plants, in a country which already had aa strong anti-nuclear movement before the Fukishima disaster.

In an interview on public radio, Rainer Bruederle, the economics minister, estimated the annual bill for the conversion at 1 billion to 2 billion euros, depending on the pace.

He called a suggestion by the newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung of an annual add-on of 3 billion euros to electricity bills as 'speculative.' The investment would be needed to build gas-powered plants, wind turbines and new high-voltage supply lines.

Bruederle spoke before a Friday meeting at Chancellor Angela Merkel's office of state premiers to discuss the energy issue.

Merkel spokesman Steffen Seibert, asked about Bruederle's comments, said that it was not possible to give a cost at the moment because it was not clear yet what would be included in the draft legislation to be unveiled in June.

Merkel's government last year allowed the nuclear industry a time extension until about 2036, but is now reviewing this. Opposition parties are demanding that a previous closure timetable ending in about 2022 be restored, or even that a faster closedown be adopted.

The dates are approximate because the utilities have been granted output quotas rather than timespans. They can decide themselves how long it will take to generate the set amount of power. The quotas can also be redistributed between different power stations.

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