Power firm RWE questions German nuclear phase-out

[Susan Gawarecki <loc@icx.net>]

Power firm RWE questions German nuclear phase-out 
June 21, 2000 
By Helen Lancaster, Bridge News

Berlin--June 20--Senior officials at German power firm RWE are known to
be highly critical of the German Social Democrat/Green coalition
government's plans to phase out nuclear energy, even though the company
has reached a "acceptable" compromise. Speaking to Bridge News
exclusively Tuesday a high-level RWE source described the government's
policy, announced last week, as "not very intelligent". 

"I think all power firms are absolutely convinced that nuclear energy
should be part of the country's energy mix," the source said. 

"There may be good reasons to build the renewable energy business but
completely removing an energy source with low costs and low emissions
from the supply mix just does not seem very intelligent," he said. 

The issue of maintaining diverse energy supplies to minimize the
country's reliance on large suppliers of gas such as Russia and Algeria
could be seen as one angle to the argument, according to the source, but
he continued that a more pressing issue derives from the fact that
Germany" is a leader in nuclear technology". 

"It brings wealth to the country," he said, adding that as a direct
result of the phase out "thousands of jobs will be at risk". 

The RWE Group has the largest nuclear capacity in Germany, at 32
TerraWatt hours, but this represents 29% of its energy mix, the smallest
percentage among the country's largest power firms. If regulators
approve RWE's proposed merger with VEW, the combined group will have
40TWh of plant to phase out. 

EnBW is likely to be the company reeling the most from the government's
decision. Some 63% of its 46TWh portfolio is made up of nuclear plant. 

The merger of PreussenElektra and Bayernwerk will see that group with
57TWh of its 127TWh captive generation made up of nuclear plant. 

Prior to a regulatory decision on the mergers of RWE and VEW and
PreussenElektra and Bayernwerk, RWE had the largest generation market
share at 21%, the largest wholesale share at 29% and the largest retail
share at 18%. 

The RWE official said that although he may not agree with the
government's decision to remove nuclear power from Germany, the
company had in fact forged an "economic compromise" that RWE "could live
with". 

He said that in the short-term there would be "very little impact" of
the policy on its business, but added: "of course in the long run the
policy will have an affect". He said that this impact had not been fully
calculated in real terms yet.
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Susan L. Gawarecki, Ph.D., Executive Director
Oak Ridge Reservation Local Oversight Committee, Inc.
136 S Illinois Ave, Ste 208, Oak Ridge, TN 37830
Phone (865) 483-1333; Fax (865) 482-6572; E-mail loc@icx.net 
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