Germany will extend the operation of its last three nuclear power plants, Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced on Monday.
“The legal bases will be created to allow the operation of the Isar 2, Neckarwestheim 2 and Emsland nuclear power plants,” specifies a letter from the chancellor to the government that AFP was able to consult.
Previously, the government had only announced the maintenance of two of the three plants beyond the end of 2022.
Europe’s largest economy is struggling to reduce its dependence on Russian energy imports after the war in Ukraine.
Coal power plants also
The fate of the Emsland power station in northern Germany had caused friction within Scholz’s coalition government, between the anti-nuclear Greens and the liberal FDP in particular.
But the Chancellor finally decided, without reaching a consensus.
Germany initially aimed to phase out nuclear power by the end of 2022, but the war in Ukraine has upended its plans.
The German government has also decided to extend the activity of several coal-fired power plants until the spring of 2024, although it has set itself the goal of abandoning this energy in 2030.
Swedish activist Greta Thunberg had considered it preferable to continue using the nuclear power plants currently in operation in Germany than to resort to coal, in a recent interview on German television.
Source: BFM TV
