urg::: German nuke extension against security law: study

[Len Kanaar - FoE Sydney]

German nuke life extension plan is against security law: study

Freiburg (Platts)--2Sep2005

The German opposition CDU party's planned extension of the lives of 
nuclear power plants violates German law after terror attacks on New 
York on Sep 11 heightened internal security concerns, a report 
commissioned by the German environmental group Deutsche Umwelthilfe 
(DUH) said Friday.

The CDU and its likely coalition partner, the FDP, plan to extend the 
lives of nuclear power plants by eight years to 40 years. However, 
the new CDU energy adviser Heinrich von Pierer, chairman of Siemens, 
wants the lives to be extended even more and re-evaluate nuclear 
power plants' status in Germany. Von Pierer has suggested an 
extension to 60 years.

"We found that new regulations following Sep 11 mean that German 
decommissioning has to be continued because it is no longer a small 
risk that a nuclear unit would be attacked by terrorists," said DUH, 
citing internal security regulations from the home office.

The group also noted that nuclear power plant operators had waived 
the unlimited operating permissions of their reactors when they 
signed the existing SPD-Green party coalition government's nuclear 
decommissioning program in June 2000. Now each reactor has a certain 
amount of power left to generate, after which their operating 
permission becomes invalid.

"The idea of the CDU and FDP to undo that process cannot be held up 
legally," said Reiner Geulen, the nuclear law expert who carried out 
the study. He said local inhabitants or communities could take legal 
action against the nuclear plants' operation and the chances were 
good that they would win.


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