Safety checks for decommissioning a North German nuclear power plant are lacking

The dismantling of several nuclear power plants (NPPs) in Schleswig-Holstein (SH) is apparently currently taking place in many cases without the planned safety inspections. According to the state government, the extension of hundreds of such inspections from – has been pending for months in some cases. Meanwhile, work on the nuclear power plants is apparently simply continuing. An IT glitch is to blame.

This is the result of a small question from the FDP parliamentary group in the state parliament of Schleswig-Holstein to the Minister for Energy Transition, Climate Protection, Environment and Nature (MEKUN), Tobias Goldschmidt. The question concerned background checks on employees and external service providers for the dismantling of the Brokdorf, Brunsbüttel and Krümmel nuclear power plants. Persons without such a check are prohibited from working on the construction or operation of plants that work with nuclear fuel. This is stipulated in the Atomic Energy Act. The ministry compares data from various security authorities such as the criminal investigation department or the Office for the Protection of the Constitution when carrying out checks.

This is what should actually happen with the 824 applications that MEKUN has received in the past 12 months. However, only 17 of these were processed. Until mid-2024, a "stable and high-performance IT process" was used for this purpose, the ministry wrote in its response to the inquiry. However, this process and the server used for it had failed and the service provider had not yet been able to fully restore it. The IT program used serves in particular to involve the responsible licensing and supervisory authorities and to communicate with them. "Against this background, it was not possible to obtain all the necessary information by alternative means, e.g. by email," writes the ministry, referring to particular challenges in terms of data security.

Access with outdated security checks

Nevertheless, a large proportion of those affected still have access to the facilities. These are people who have already undergone a background check in the past, which then had to be routinely repeated. With this approach, the state government has made use of all the measures at its disposal. "There is no reason to fear that safety will be compromised", emphasizes the state government. "Work at the sites is still possible, and no concrete effects on the progress of the dismantling of the nuclear power plants have been brought to the attention of the state government", it says. The operators could fulfill their obligation under nuclear law to dismantle without delay.

The restoration of the functionality of the server and the IT program is therefore underway, as are preparations to process the backlog of applications as effectively as possible. The government also wants to use this opportunity to optimize the corresponding IT systems.

(nen)