atw 2017-06

atw Vol. 62 (2017) | Issue 6 ı June
Notes
Press Release 16 May 2017
AMNT: President Warns Against
Loss of Nuclear Expertise
In his speech at the 48 th Annual Meeting on Nuclear
Technology (AMNT 2017), the President of the DAtF
( German Atomic Forum), Dr. Ralf Güldner, warned against
the loss of nuclear expertise and of nuclear research and
industry in Germany. Güldner said that the challenge for
nuclear technology in Germany lay in the long-term
provision of expertise. He said this applied to research,
industry and the state itself and that it was premised on
using this expertise, for example, in industrial projects for
upgrading plants or in development. He continued that
the international demand for German safety expertise,
which enjoys an excellent reputation, contributed
significantly to maintaining it. He warned that the decision
to phase out nuclear energy must not constitute a risk of
losing this expertise.
In his speech, Güldner said, “Nuclear safety research
forms the basis for expertise in safety issues in which
Germany intends to play a long-term role and exert its
influence. If we want to continue participating in the international
discussion of safety standards, then continuity in
safety research is absolutely essential.” He complained
that, especially in the case of innovative topics, reactor
safety research was now being regarded as superfluous
and that many federal state governments no longer wanted
anything to do with it. He said that university chairs were
not being refilled and universities and research institutes
were shaped as to withdraw from areas that were not
assigned to waste management or dismantling.
Güldner therefore suggested a new beginning for safety
research, “The solution might lie in a new Centre of
Expertise for Nuclear Safety where current issues could be
dealt with without the burden of past conflicts. Here, it
may be possible to pool capacities, to network research,
state and industry and to create an attractive hub for our
international collaboration.”
He drew attention to the fact that nuclear energy would
continue to contribute to the security of the power supply
in Germany. He indicated that the political consensus on
the transformation of the German energy sector would
also be implemented by operating the plants until 2022.
And with regard to this he stated, “There must therefore be
no factually unfounded complications to operation of the
nuclear power plants in the last few years.” Güldner
pointed out that the facilities for uranium enrichment and
fuel assembly production were explicitly excluded from
the phase out of nuclear energy use and he rejected any
efforts to expand the phase out.
DATF EDITORIAL NOTES
377
New Brochure
The DAtF has published the new edition of
its nuclear power statistics flyer with status April 2017:
“Kernenergie in Zahlen 2017”
3 The flyer can be downloaded and ordered
at kernenergie.de under the headings
Downloads and Shop.
For further details
please contact:
Nicolas Wendler
DAtF
Robert-Koch-Platz 4
10115 Berlin
Germany
E-mail: presse@
kernenergie.de
www.kernenergie.de
DAtF Notes