E-cars are booming – but where should all the electricity for them come from? Expert Ferdinand Dudenhöffer brings the construction of new nuclear power plants into play. But his calculation contains some questionable assumptions.
It is a thesis with potential for excitement: In order to expand e-mobility as agreed by the SPD, Greens and FDP, a return to nuclear power in Germany is inevitable, according to calculations by car expert Ferdinand Dudenhöffer. “If we take electromobility really seriously in Germany, we must not do without nuclear power plants,” the Augsburger Allgemeine quoted as saying the head of the private Center Automotive Research (CAR).
“In order to keep the electric cars running in 2050, we would need 39,000 additional wind turbines compared to today,” says Dudenhöffer. That is not feasible. The only way out is therefore to build new nuclear power plants, which are much safer today than in the past. Nuclear waste is also easier to recycle in the meantime.
You can read that as a bet on the future – at least it’s a steep thesis. In fact, new nuclear power projects in other countries are plaguing fundamental problems , above all endless construction times and rapidly rising costs. And the question of how to deal with the radioactive waste has de facto nowhere been satisfactorily clarified.