Germany turns to the last 3 nuclear plants to spend the winter

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has announced that Berlin will find the legal grounds to extend the operation of the country’s last three nuclear plants until mid-April, while Germany is expected to face an energy crisis this winter.

“Legal bases will be found that will allow to extend the operation of the nuclear plants “Isar 2, Neckarvesheim 2 and Emsland” until after December 31, 2022, until April 15,” the German Chancellor wrote in a letter addressed to the ministers in his government.

The government had previously agreed to extend the work of two of the three stations beyond the date of putting them out of service at the end of the year, in the midst of efforts by the largest economic power in Europe to dispense with importing Russian energy resources against the backdrop of the ongoing war in Ukraine.

The fate of the Emsland nuclear plant in northern Germany sparked a row between Scholz’s coalition partners, and the Greens resisted Liberal Party demands to keep the plant in service.

Several rounds of talks in recent days failed to find a solution to the dispute, and Scholz’s statement indicated that he had taken the decision to break the deadlock.

The letter states that Scholz, the leader of the center-left SPD, is using his powers as chancellor to issue a directive.

Germany had planned to bring its last three nuclear plants out of service by the end of 2022, to complete the process of abandoning them launched by former Chancellor Angela Merkel.

But the war in Ukraine changed the plans, forcing the German authorities to reconsider their decision after electricity prices rose and Russia stopped pumping gas through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline.

Germany is racing to secure enough energy as the cold winter approaches and has restarted its coal-fired power plants.

And in a major shift, German Economy Minister Robert Habeck, who belongs to the Greens usually opposed to nuclear energy, recently announced that the “Isar 2” and “Neckarvestheim 2” nuclear power plants will remain in service until April 2023.

He had come under increasing pressure from the Liberal Democratic Party to keep the three stations in service.

Party leader and Finance Minister Christian Lindner had stressed that the three stations should be kept in service in order to “reduce prices and avoid blackouts”.

Liberal Justice Minister Marco Buschmann, in a tweet, welcomed Scholz’s decision.

“Logic has prevailed,” he tweeted, adding, “This matter strengthens our country because it guarantees more stability to the grid and lower electricity prices”.