Two German state ministries spoke out on Monday against a proposal to keep some of Germany's nuclear power capacity on stand-by for reserve to balance power grids in the aftermath of Japan's Fukushima disaster.
The environment minister of Hesse state, which houses RWE's Biblis B reactor, one of the candidates put forward, said it would not support the 34-year-old 1,300 megawatt (MW) plant.
"We don't want Biblis B as cold reserve," minister Lucia Puttrich said in a statement.
She added that Germany's speedier than planned exit from nuclear power for safety reasons could not be reconciled with the idea of reactivating that same capacity previously deemed too old to be safe.
The energy regulatory authority, Bundesnetzagentur, which monitors power network stability, is due to decide soon what type of reserve power capacity it wants to compensate German grids for the sudden loss of some 8,800 MW of nuclear power.
The Berlin government enforced the shutdown after it became clear that political majorities favoured a decisive move against nuclear power at home, after witnessing the Japan crisis.
Biblis B had been mentioned in that context and also E.ON's 912 MW Isar 1 reactor as their geographic position is in sensitive regions with power-guzzling heavy industries affected by nuclear shutdowns in their vicinity. This came as the regulator scouted around for possibilities and the energy industry was ready to discuss options.
Baden Wuerttemberg state's environment ministry, which supervises utility EnBW's reactors, said in a statement it believed nuclear power to be unsuitable as a reserve option because constant closures and restarts did not fit with the technology.
Hesse said should a reserve be necessary at all — which grid companies have said is the case — then it could come from other conventional power such as coal and gas.
