SpaceWar.com - Your World At War
Germany says energy supply safe despite nuclear exit
Berlin, April 13 (AFP) Apr 13, 2023
Switching off Germany's remaining nuclear plants will not put the country's power supply at risk despite the energy crisis caused by the war in Ukraine, ministers said Thursday.

Germany's "security of supply is and will be assured" despite the nuclear exit, Economy Minister Robert Habeck said in a statement.

Germany's last three reactors will go offline on Saturday, the culmination of a long-planned departure from atomic power.

But calls have grown for Germany to extend the life of its nuclear plants since Moscow's invasion of Ukraine put an end to cheap Russian gas imports and threw Europe's largest economy into an unprecedented energy crisis.

The debate has riven the coalition led by Social Democrat Chancellor Olaf Scholz, with the support of the pro-business FDP and the fiercely anti-nuclear Greens.

The phase-out has been "a dramatic mistake, with painful economic and ecological consequences", the FDP's deputy leader Wolfgang Kubicki told the Funke media group.

Opposition figures have also called for an extension.

"We want the three current nuclear power plants to continue to operate and three more to be made available in reserve" to overcome the current energy crisis, Bavaria's conservative leader Markus Soeder told website Focus Online.

"The nuclear exit makes our country safer," said Environment Minister Steffi Lemke.

"The risks of nuclear power are ultimately unmanageable."

The end of nuclear hailed a "new era of energy production", Lemke said, with the government betting on the speedy expansion of renewable energy to cover its needs.

The increase in wind and solar power would provide "additional security", Habeck said, with the minister aiming to source 80 percent of Germany's energy from green sources by 2030.


ADVERTISEMENT




Space News from SpaceDaily.com
Proba-3 reveals breakthrough images of the solar corona from space
Detection of ancient water ice suggests interstellar origins predating the Sun
UP Aerospace debuts Spyder rocket with successful hypersonic test launch

24/7 Energy News Coverage
Acid vapor boosts durability of carbon dioxide-to-fuel devices
World Bank lifts ban on nuclear energy financing
Waymo leads autonomous taxi race in the US

Military Space News, Nuclear Weapons, Missile Defense
Israel, Iran exchange more deadly airstrikes on fifth day of conflict
Amid Israel-Iran war, Nimitz aircraft carrier to join Vinson in Middle East
B61-13 gravity bomb reaches first production milestone ahead of projected timeline

24/7 News Coverage
ICEYE radar imaging added to SkyFi satellite data platform
China expands disaster monitoring with launch of Zhangheng 1B satellite
China leads international drive to build global space weather monitoring network



All rights reserved. Copyright Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.