A few days before the shutdown of the last three German nuclear power plants this Saturday, the FDP proposes to keep the plants operational for the time being. The chairman of the Liberals in the Bundestag, Christian Dürr, said in the ARD that one could start the power plants "again, if it comes to a difficult situation".
Lukas Fuhr
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His deputy Lukas Köhler said the energy crisis was not over yet. Therefore, it would be right "not to start directly with the dismantling of the nuclear power plants and to ensure that they could be made operational again in case of doubt". For this, however, new fuel rods would have to be procured. Köhler called for a discussion "with those who can get the fuel rods and who could also help us in case of doubt, also from other countries".
Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) had the deputy government spokeswoman declare that he was behind the shutdown. Politicians of the Greens also rejected the FDP's proposal. Former Environment Minister Jürgen Trittin spoke of "complete nonsense". Nuclear power has no future, he told the "Tagesspiegel".
Nuclear power is already four to five times more expensive than electricity from solar or wind power plants. Federal Environment Minister Robert Habeck had described the phase-out as irreversible and assured that the supply was guaranteed in view of the high filling levels of gas storage facilities, new liquefied natural gas terminals and the expansion of renewable energies.
The chairman of the Rhineland-Palatinate CDU Christian Baldauf criticized this attitude. He told the F.A.Z. that SMEs are currently investing abroad because energy costs are too high in Germany. The phase-out of nuclear power also affects the German emissions balance: "Those who now depend on lignite-fired power plants harm the climate."
Baldauf also said that the CDU had been "perhaps a little too defensive" when there was talk of continuing to operate nuclear power plants before the winter. Admittedly, the order of new fuel rods had been demanded at an early stage. "But you can ask self-critically whether that was enough."