2023-04-14 13:15:00
Berlin is convinced that it can achieve the climate goals and energy security without nuclear power plants. “We’ve got the situation under control.”
Germany will end nuclear power altogether this weekend. On Saturday, the last three nuclear power stations that are still running will be shut down. The German government is confident that, despite the war in Ukraine, it will be able to achieve the planned greening of the electricity supply without nuclear energy.
“Power security was guaranteed during the last difficult winter, and will continue to be guaranteed,” said Economic Affairs Minister Robert Habeck to the DPA news agency. “We have the situation under control.”
Delay due to the energy crisis
The Germans have been working on their much-discussed for more than two decades nuclear phase-out, the abandonment of nuclear energy. The measure was put together in the late 1990s by the Greens, to which Minister Habeck belongs. Sixteen nuclear power plants have been closed since 2003. The last three nuclear power plants should have been closed at the end of December, but that was postponed by three and a half months to Saturday due to the energy crisis.
Now it’s really over. The Emsland power station near the Dutch border in the north, the Neckarwestheim power station near Stuttgart and the Isar 2 complex in Bavaria will close. In the coming years, the reactors will have to be dismantled and a final storage site for the radioactive waste will be sought.
Meanwhile, the move remains controversial to the end. In other European countries, including France and the United Kingdom, substantial investments will be made in nuclear energy in the coming years. There are also plans for two new power stations in the Netherlands. Critics point out that without nuclear power, Germany may have to burn more gas and coal for a stable power supply, leading to more CO2emissions would result. They also fear that Germany will fall behind in the development of new promising nuclear technology, such as nuclear fusion.
‘Prefer polluting coal-fired power stations’
Moreover, public opinion has changed. Saying goodbye to atomic energy was always quite popular, but the war has changed that. According to polls, a large majority of the German population is now in favor of continuing with nuclear energy, at least for the time being.
The Christian Democratic opposition party CDU is also critical. The CDU deputy party leader in the Bundestag, Jens Spahn, accuses Minister Habeck of preferring to burn polluting coal-fired power stations rather than to keep nuclear reactors running. According to the Christian Democrat, the closure on Saturday is ‘a black day for climate protection’.
The move also caused considerable tension within the government coalition. The liberal FDP accuses the Greens of making the Atomausstieg such a sacred article of faith that rational discussion is no longer possible. Liberal leader Bijan Djir-Sarai calls for a more ‘open mind’.
‘Nuclear power plant always turns out to be an economic fiasco’
But the green minister Habeck stands his ground. The minister points out that Germany’s gas storage tanks are regarding two-thirds full, that Germany has been building liquefied gas terminals on its north coast at a rapid pace since the start of the war, and that the country is making progress in its transition to green energy . Last year, 46 percent of Germany’s electricity was generated sustainably, using wind, solar or biomass.
According to the minister, nuclear power stations are financially impossible to defend. “Building a new nuclear power plant always turns out to be an economic fiasco, whether it is in France, in Great Britain or in Finland.”
Habeck and his Greens are supported by the Social Democratic SPD of Chancellor Olaf Scholz, the third party in the governing coalition. Although there may also be a touch of political opportunism. Because Scholz had to pull out all the stops in a nightly marathon meeting just at the end of last month to prevent contradictions within his so-called traffic light coalition from leading to the fall of his government. The Social Democrats have no appetite for a new crisis.
“The German energy supply is of course guaranteed, even following April 15,” assured SPD parliamentarian Jakob Blankenburg in an interview with the daily newspaper The world. “Anyone who claims otherwise does so only to stir up public opinion and frighten the population.”
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