After weeks of dispute in the coalition, Chancellor Scholz has decided to operate the third nuclear power plant still in operation until April 15, 2023 at the latest, before that the nuclear power plant in Lower Saxony would close on January 1, 2023.

Germany originally decided to shut down all three nuclear power plants by the end of this year, but the energy crisis has changed that. Last month, the cabinet decided to keep two nuclear power plants in Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg open until mid-April.

The coalition party De Groenen, opponents of nuclear energy, decided at the party conference last weekend that these two power plants should be retained. Coalition partner FDP, on the other hand, demanded that the three remaining nuclear power plants all remain in operation until 2024 due to rising energy prices. The FDP also wants closed nuclear power plants to reopen if necessary.

clear point of view

Party leader Lang van De Groen called on Chancellor Scholz’s SPD to take a clearer position on this issue. With the decision to keep the three nuclear power plants open throughout the winter, Scholz took the plunge. FDP leader Dürr mentioned this Twitter “good news against the background of the energy crisis”.

In the meantime, the dismantling of the other German nuclear power plants will continue. The so-called nuclear phase-out was accelerated in 2011 after the nuclear disaster in Fukushima, Japan. For fear of new accidents and problems with the storage of nuclear waste, the federal government has decided to stop using nuclear energy.