German Greens remain strict on nuclear issue

“New fuel rods are the common thread,” party leader Ricarda Lang told Der Spiegel magazine. “If we were to buy new fuel rods now, that would mean long-term investments in nuclear energy. That is not the way of the future.”

Her co-chair Omid Nouripour had previously made a similar statement. The Greens would support it if two nuclear power plants were needed for grid stability over the winter, he told the Rheinische Post. At the same time, he assured: “We remain anti-nuclear party.”

The Green Party Congress wanted to discuss the issue of energy security late Friday night. A vote by the Federal Executive Committee on 9 September, which supports the reserve operation for two of the three remaining German nuclear power plants, is to be voted on, proposed by the economy minister and ex-party leader Robert Habeck.

“For the most extreme emergency” continuation of the nuclear power plant would therefore be conceivable. The two southern German nuclear power stations Isar 2 and Neckarwestheim 2 will be put on standby and, if necessary, put into operation until spring, “without new fuel elements”. Habeck had recently stated that he assumed it would be necessary to actually commission these two plants until spring.

A heated discussion has erupted in the German “traffic light” coalition of SPD, Greens and FDP about how to deal with Germany’s last nuclear power plants. While the FDP is pushing for a longer operating period until at least 2024, the Greens, in particular, are rejecting it. For this reason, no bill has yet been drafted to amend the Atomic Energy Act.

In the course of the German nuclear phase-out, 14 of the then 17 German nuclear power plants have been shut down since the reactor disaster in Fukushima, Japan, in 2011. The operating licenses for the last three will expire on December 31 this year. In order for Isar 2 and Neckarwestheim 2 to be operational in the spring, the Atomic Energy Act must be amended by the Bundestag.

Nuclear power contributed 12 percent to national electricity generation last year and six percent this year. According to a survey, more than every second person in Germany is open to the continuous operation of nuclear power plants during the energy crisis. A total of 56 percent of those surveyed can envision or are even in favor of surgery after 2024. This is apparent from the results of a representative survey by the opinion research institute YouGov on behalf of the German news agency.

Of the 2,027 respondents, 19 percent stated that Germany’s nuclear power plants should continue to operate “indefinitely”, a further 37 percent stated that German nuclear power plants should continue to operate after 2024 “if the energy crisis requires it”.

Anti-nuclear activists have announced protests on the sidelines of the party congress against the course of the Greens leadership.

(SDA)