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

Let’s wait Nuclear phase-out Firmly – and end up resorting to nuclear power from abroad?

Can! Ukrainian Energy Minister Herman Halushenko has offered to supply Germany with nuclear energy.

In the field of decarbonization (Moving away from using carbon-based energy sources, editor). Ukraine is moving with a different logic than Germany,” Halushenko wrote in a recent guest article on “Wirtschaftswoche.” Therefore, more than 50 percent of Ukraine’s electricity is generated at nuclear power plants.

“This means that Ukraine, whose power grid has been synchronized with the Association of European Transport Systems Operators since March 16, can become an outsourcing of electricity to Germany,” the minister said.

Minister: He can “support in a difficult task”

This creates “a kind of insurance protection in times of weather-related deterioration in solar and wind generation”. Another advantage of Ukraine is the time difference of one hour to Berlin, which means that the peak energy consumption varies.

The minister wrote in “Wirtschaftswoche” that moving away from Russian energy represented a “tremendous challenge” for Germany and became “more urgent”. But Ukraine can support Germany in this arduous 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 in Enerhodar near Zaporizhia have been under Russian control since March.

With the Russian invasion four months ago, due to the fighting, air traffic and economic stagnation, electricity consumption has also fallen dramatically. Kyiv is currently exporting electricity to Poland and Moldova.

Political Zoff in Germany

Meanwhile, a row rages in Germany over the possible continued operation of the three nuclear power plants still connected to the grid.

In addition to CDU leader Friedrich Merz (66) and CSU leader Markus Söder (55), Finance Minister Christian Lindner (43, FDP) has also introduced longer nuclear power plant run times and called for an “open discussion” on the subject. In the event of an emergency, Lindner says, it’s about “virtually securing our energy supply anytime, anywhere.”

But his coalition partners have recently been reluctant to do so. A spokesperson for the Ministry of Economic Affairs referred to the assessment of Robert Habeck (52, Greens), according to which the continued operation of power plants after the phase-out date of December 31, 2022 would also be irresponsible for safety reasons.

The majority of Germans also advocate the continued operation of nuclear power plants. In a survey commissioned by ARD Thursday, 61 percent of respondents supported an extension of uptime.