On the edge of a busy secondary road, the inn-restaurant Am Kraftwerk (“A la centrale”) offers invigorating Bavarian cuisine at unbeatable prices. It also benefits from a direct view of the Isar 2 nuclear power plant, located less than 600 meters away, which has enabled its manager, Richard Tanneberger, to become unbeatable on the weather. “Thanks to the cloud of steam coming out of the plant, I can tell you what the weather will be like: if it rises vertically, it’s guaranteed good weather; if he spins to the side, there will be disturbances,” assures the fifties, before adding: “Fortunately you came today, because Saturday [15 avril], when the plant has closed, the cloud will no longer be there and I will no longer be able to predict the weather. »
Like Emsland (Lower Saxony) and Neckarwestheim 2 (Baden-Württemberg), the two other nuclear power plants still in operation in Germany, Isar 2 must be permanently shut down this Saturday evening. Among local residents, Richard Tanneberger is not alone in saying that the disappearance of his steam plume will “create a void”. This is also what Josef Klaus thinks. In 1988, when the plant opened, he wouldn’t have said that. “I had just moved into a house on the hillside. The view was beautiful and overnight I found myself with this huge cloud in front of me. At first, I found it very disturbing but, very quickly, I got used to it”says this former bank employee, who since 2014 has been mayor of Niederaichbach, a town of 4,000 inhabitants located in the immediate vicinity of the power plant.
If Josef Klaus has ” used to ” to the famous cloud, it is also because he saw everything that the plant brought back to his municipality. “Some years, we have received up to 4 million euros in business tax, which has allowed us to carry out many projects without having the slightest debt today. And then there are the repercussions in terms of employment: to build a plant and then run it, you need dozens of workers and employees. It has given work to a lot of people who would otherwise have gone elsewhere.”explains this elected member of the Bavarian Christian Social Union (CSU), who has a large photo of the power station in the center of one of the walls of his office.
“By pure ideology”
For these reasons, Josef Klaus believes that April 15 is “a very sad day”. Not that he is worried about the 450 employees of Isar 2, whose contracts are guaranteed until 2029 and many of whom can hope to keep their jobs beyond this date, the dismantling of the plant not having to be completed. than in 2039. “More than jobs, the issue that concerns me the most is that of our energy supply. That’s why I say a sad day. I don’t understand why we shut down power plants that work perfectly and emit very little CO2while the price of electricity is soaring and we must do everything to fight against global warming”deplores the mayor of Niederaichbach.
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