Germany will not re-extend the operation of nuclear power plants

BERLIN, 18 Oct – PRIME. German nuclear power plants will be turned off after the last declared day of their work in April, which means the country’s final exit from nuclear energy, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Tuesday at a press conference after a meeting with the country’s trade union leaders.

“Everything will be the way we decided – exit from nuclear energy. On April 15, everything will be over with nuclear power plants. And therefore there will be no new fuel cells,” he said during a press conference broadcast on the website of the Cabinet of Ministers.

On Monday, Scholz instructed to create a legal basis for the continuation of operation until April 15, 2023, of three German nuclear power plants Isar-2, Neckarwestheim-2 and Emsland. It was originally planned that Germany would abandon nuclear energy in 2022. At the beginning of the year, three of the last six nuclear power plants were already shut down in the country.

Earlier, the co-chairman of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), which is part of the ruling coalition, Lars Klingbeil, commenting on the disputes over German nuclear power plants, called what is happening in the country’s government a “mess”. He called on Habek, Lindner and Chancellor Olaf Scholz to clarify the situation around the nuclear power plant on the merits. The politician also added that in the coming days it is necessary to make a decision in the Bundestag.

Between the Minister of Economics of Germany Robert Habek and the head of the Ministry of Finance Christian Linder for several months there was a dispute about the extension of the operation of German nuclear power plants. Habek, who belongs to the Greens, has spoken out about the intention to extend the operation of two of the three nuclear power plants until March 2023, while Lindner called for the extension of the operation of all three plants until 2024.