Rheinenergie CEO Andreas Feicht has joined the slowly increasing chorus of prominent Germans who now term the country’s exit from nuclear power a “mistake,” while at the same time rejecting the option of correcting that mistake.
In an [interview with Focus magazine](www.focusplus.de/wirtschaft/rheinenergie-chef-deutsche-wirtschaft-naechsten-schlag-verkraftet-ist-fraglich-11168?utm_term=faktenplus&xing_share=news), Feicht said: “I’ve always believed that it’s unacceptable that, in the 21st century, in a densely populated country such as Germany, we’re digging huge holes in the ground and excavating 15 million year old plant soil just to burn it. Because that’s what lignite is. And it still contains 50% water. That can’t be right from a technological standpoint.” He added that it was right for the government to support the consequences of the decreed phase-out, but the “phase-out of nuclear energy was a mistake.” Shutting down all nuclear power plants, and not keeping some at least, was “an economic loss.”
Asked whether it means that Germany needs to consider building new nuclear power plants, Feicht, nevertheless, said: “No. You can see in France and the U.K. just how expensive it would be. Billions are being sunk there—into single power plants. It’s not wrong to keep an eye on the technology of the new, smaller power plants, the ‘small modular reactors’ (SMR). But they won’t be developed or competitive for years to come.”
