Germany’s leading mass-tabloid, Bildzeitung, reports, “After France, the Netherlands and Belgium, the British also want to produce more nuclear power. Specifically, Prime Minister Boris Johnson plans to build six new reactors! Reason: to become more independent of natural gas! And Germany? It will shut down its last three reactors at the end of 2022!”
Remarks by Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Green Party) at the beginning of the Ukraine war that Germany must become more independent of Putin’s gas, only make sense if the planned nuclear exit by the end of 2022 is suspended, Bildzeitung writes, adding, “Many countries turn on nuclear power plants, Germany turns them off: Is Habeck taking our energy future for a ride?”
The industry association KernD has already offered the government to continue operating the power plants. Expert Prof. Jörg Starflinger (University of Stuttgart) also sees no problem: “The German nuclear power plants are in good shape and could continue to operate for several years without any problems.” Bavaria’s Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) told BILD: “‘Germany must not shut down without thinking. Without nuclear power, it will be cold and expensive next winter. As a bridge, it still needs nuclear power for at least three years.”
The economics wing of the CDU/CSU is now demanding that the three shutdown reactors be brought back online – and that the operating lives of the three active reactors be extended by up to 10 years. Gitta Connemann (CDU) to BILD: “Independence from the warmonger Putin and climate protection must not be played off against each other.”
And Schleswig-Holstein’s state parliament group of FDP leader Christopher Vogt calls on Habeck to “examine more seriously whether it is possible to continue to use the three remaining nuclear power plants and also those that were only recently taken off the grid, such as Brokdorf, for a time.”
