energy crisis
CSU politician Scheuer: Build three new nuclear power plants
Former Federal Transport Minister Andreas Scheuer (CSU) after a face-to-face meeting of the CSU board in Munich. photo
© Peter Kneffel/dpa
In the debate about the future energy supply in Germany, the former Minister of Transport relies on nuclear power – and warns of an “ideological trap” for the Greens.
Former transport minister Andreas Scheuer has proposed building new nuclear power plants amid the energy crisis. “My formula is three plus three plus three: three nuclear power plants have to run longer, three have to be reactivated and three have to be built from scratch,” the CSU politician told the “Welt am Sonntag”.
“We need a reliable supply of energy to the economy, otherwise the deindustrialization of Germany will progress.” Germany has become the world’s supplicant and is getting deliveries for new gas in Qatar, Canada and Norway. Germany is stuck in the ideological trap of the Greens, said Scheuer.
Because of the energy crisis, which has worsened as a result of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, there has been a debate for months as to whether the three remaining nuclear power plants in Germany should continue to run longer than the current legal situation provides. The operating license for the Isar 2 nuclear reactor in Bavaria should actually expire at the end of the year, as should the other two remaining reactors, Emsland in Lower Saxony and Neckarwestheim 2 in Baden-Württemberg.
Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) considers longer lifetimes for nuclear power plants to be possible. The SPD chairwoman Saskia Esken had said, however, that the phase-out of nuclear energy would not be revised and justified this, among other things, with high costs and open questions about nuclear waste disposal.
In 2011, the then federal government under Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) decided to gradually phase out nuclear energy for Germany after the nuclear disaster in Fukushima, Japan. In the Union, the nuclear phase-out was very controversial for many years before the debate recently flared up again.