Steam rises from the cooling tower of the Bavarian nuclear power plant Isar 2.
Image: Armin Weigel/dpa
Run longer, reactivate old nuclear power plants, order fuel rods? These questions weigh more and more on the coalition. What the FDP and the Greens want doesn’t go together.
IIn the coalition dispute over the nuclear power plants, the FDP has reiterated its demand for continued operation until 2024. “The energy crisis does not end at our request in April 2023,” said FDP General Secretary Bijan Djir-Sarai of the “Rheinische Post”. “Unfortunately, the expansion of renewable energies, which the Union has been delaying for years, cannot be sufficiently made up for by then either. That’s why we need a temporary extension of the service life of the three safe German nuclear power plants until 2024.” In addition, more safe nuclear power plants would have to be brought back on line. The Greens strictly reject both.
Federal Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) only wants to keep two nuclear power plants operational until spring in the event of bottlenecks in the power supply. He had recently put pressure on the FDP to clear the way for this in the cabinet: “You can’t want longer terms and at the same time prevent the nuclear power plants from being able to run,” he told the “Spiegel”.
New fuel rods or not?
Greens leader Omid Nouripour underlined the rejection of longer operation of the nuclear power plants: “We are the anti-nuclear party,” he told the “taz”. “We will certainly not order new fuel rods and thus new nuclear waste.”
But that is exactly what the FDP wants: Djir-Sarai called for new fuel rods to be procured as soon as possible. “By the way, you can’t only buy them in Russia. Friendly countries like Canada and Australia can easily replace the Russian uranium.”
Top talk probably unsuccessful
According to information from the German Press Agency, a top-level discussion within the federal government on Tuesday did not bring any clarification. Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD), Habeck and FDP leader Christian Lindner took part. Further details were not initially known.
Actually, the three remaining German nuclear power plants should be shut down as part of the nuclear phase-out at the end of this year. The reason for the debate about temporary continued operation is the energy crisis resulting from the Ukraine war.
