Advertisement
Advertisement

Germany mulls extending nuclear plants’ life-span – economy minister

By:
Reuters
Published: Feb 27, 2022, 20:09 UTC

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Germany is weighing whether to extend the life-span of its remaining nuclear power plants as a way to secure the country's energy supply in the face of uncertainty over Russian gas supplies, the country's economy minister said.

Scholz addresses special German parliament meeting on Ukraine

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Germany is weighing whether to extend the life-span of its remaining nuclear power plants as a way to secure the country’s energy supply in the face of uncertainty over Russian gas supplies, the country’s economy minister said.

Asked by German broadcaster ARD whether he could imagine letting nuclear plants run longer than planned under Germany’s exit plan, which foresees shutting down the country’s three remaining plans by the end of 2022, Robert Habeck said: “It is part of my ministry’s tasks to answer this question. I would not reject it on ideological grounds – but the preliminary examination has shown that it does not help us.”

Isar 2, Emsland and Neckarwestheim 2 remain the last nuclear plants that produce power in Germany after the country a decade ago decided to phase out the fuel in the wake of Japan’s Fukushima disaster.

The three plants are owned by German energy firms E.ON, RWE and EnBW, respectively. Habeck said the three operators have pointed out that extending the life-spans would not help for the 2022/23 winter season.

“Because the preparations for the shutdowns are already so far advanced that the nuclear power plants could only continue to operate under the highest safety concerns and possibly with fuel supplies that have not yet been secured,” Habeck said.

“And that is certainly not what we want.”

(Reporting by Christoph Steitz; editing by Diane Craft)

About the Author

Reuterscontributor

Reuters, the news and media division of Thomson Reuters, is the world’s largest international multimedia news provider reaching more than one billion people every day. Reuters provides trusted business, financial, national, and international news to professionals via Thomson Reuters desktops, the world's media organizations, and directly to consumers at Reuters.com and via Reuters TV. Learn more about Thomson Reuters products:

Did you find this article useful?

Advertisement