BERLIN (AP) \u2014 Rising concern over the impact of a potential Russian gas cutoff is fueling the debate in Germany over whether the country should switch off its last three nuclear power plants as planned at the end of this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The door to some kind of extension appeared to open a crack after the Economy Ministry in mid-July announced a new \u201cstress test\u201d on the security of electricity supplies. It\u2019s supposed to take into account a tougher scenario than a previous test, concluded in May, that found supplies were assured.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since then, Russia has\u00a0reduced natural gas supplies\u00a0through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline to Germany to 20% of capacity amid tensions over the war in Ukraine. It cited technical issues that Germany says are only an excuse for a political power play. Russia recently has accounted for about a third of Germany\u2019s gas supply, and there are concerns it could turn off the tap altogether.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The main opposition Union bloc has made increasingly frequent demands for an extension of the nuclear plants\u2019 lives. Similar calls are coming from the smallest party in Chancellor Olaf Scholz\u2019s coalition government, the pro-business Free Democrats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cA lot speaks for not switching off the safe and climate-friendly nuclear power plants, but if necessary using them until 2024,\u201d Finance Minister Christian Lindner, the Free Democrats\u2019 leader, told Sunday\u2019s Bild am Sonntag newspaper. He called for Economy Minister Robert Habeck, who is responsible for energy, to stop the use of gas to generate electricity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Calls for extending the use of nuclear power are awkward for the other two governing parties, Scholz\u2019s center-left Social Democrats and, particularly, Habeck\u2019s environmentalist Greens. Opposition to nuclear power is a cornerstone of the Greens\u2019 identity; a Social Democrat-Green government launched Germany\u2019s exit from nuclear power two decades ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A government made up of then-Chancellor Angela Merkel\u2019s center-right Union and the Free Democrats set the nuclear exit\u2019s current form in 2011, shortly after the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan. It calls for the three still-operational reactors to go offline at the end of December.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Habeck has long argued that keeping those reactors running would be legally and technically complex and\u00a0do little to address\u00a0the problems caused by a shortfall of gas, arguing that natural gas isn\u2019t so much a factor in generating electricity as in fueling industrial processes and providing heating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe have a heating problem or an industry problem, but not an electricity problem \u2014 at least not generally throughout the country,\u201d he said in early July.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In this year\u2019s first quarter, nuclear plants accounted for 6% of Germany\u2019s electricity generation and gas for 13%. Lindner said \u201cwe must work to ensure that an electricity crisis doesn\u2019t come on top of the gas crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some Greens have indicated a degree of openness in recent days to allowing one or more reactors to keep running for a short period with their existing fuel rods, if the country faces a power supply emergency \u2014 though not to a longer extension.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Others aren\u2019t impressed by the idea. That \u201cis also a lifetime extension\u201d for the reactors that would require a change to the existing law, \u201cand we won\u2019t touch that,\u201d prominent Green lawmaker Juergen Trittin \u2014 Germany\u2019s environment minister when the nuclear phaseout was first drawn up \u2014 told Saturday\u2019s Tagesspiegel newspaper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Critics say that isn\u2019t enough anyway. Opposition leader Friedrich Merz has urged the government to order new fuel rods for the remaining reactors immediately. Senior opposition lawmaker Alexander Dobrindt called for\u00a0three already-shut reactors\u00a0to be reactivated and told the Welt am Sonntag newspaper that \u201cin this situation, lifetime extensions for nuclear energy of at least five more years are conceivable.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And Scholz\u2019s position? Government spokeswoman Christiane Hoffmann said last week that he is waiting for the results of the \u201cstress test,\u201d which are expected in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The government has already\u00a0given the green light\u00a0for utility companies to fire up 10 dormant coal-fired power plants and six that are oil-fueled, and plans also to clear the way for dormant lignite-fired plants to be reactivated. Another 11 coal-fired power plants scheduled to be shut down in November will be allowed to keep operating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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