Saudi Press

Saudi Arabia and the world
Wednesday, Oct 08, 2025

Germany’s nuclear opposition wavers as energy crunch fears rise

Germany’s nuclear opposition wavers as energy crunch fears rise

Green politicians are softening their stance but the party remains divided.

Germany’s nuclear cliff edge is crumbling.

The country’s three remaining nuclear power plants are scheduled to shut down at the end of this year — the grand finale of a decade-long plan to end the use of atomic power enacted under former Chancellor Angela Merkel in the wake of the Fukushima disaster.

But driven by fears of Russia's energy blackmail, Berlin is assessing the risks of a winter power crunch and opposition to delaying the phaseout is softening — including among the Greens.

In recent days, senior Green politicians have signaled they are prepared to keep nuclear power plants running for a few months longer, stretching the remaining fuel supply into spring to keep the lights on.

“If we have a real emergency situation, that hospitals can’t work anymore … we have to talk about [stretching] the fuel,” said Katrin Göring-Eckardt, a Green vice president of the Bundestag, on a talk show this week.

The issue is splitting the party.

Several Green heavyweights and regional branches have voiced opposition to any extension, while others, notably in southern Germany, say security of supply is now the paramount issue.

A similar debate is raging in the Social Democratic Party — part of the ruling coalition alongside the Greens and the liberal Free Democrats — whose members also aren’t keen on nuclear power.

But delaying the phaseout would be a particularly bitter pill to swallow for the Greens — a party that emerged from Germany’s anti-nuclear movement — and would face fierce opposition from many of its members.


The Bavarian problem


A key argument for Greens and others opposing a delay has been that Germany faces a gas crisis, not a power crisis. But there’s growing concern that this could change.

As nuclear plants can’t replace gas needed for household boilers or industrial processes, Berlin’s focus has been on substituting gas volumes after Russia started throttling supply.

Gas also contributes around 15 percent to Germany’s power mix, and the government has decided to reactivate coal plants to deal with a potential electricity shortage. But that might not be enough.

The government has decided to reactivate coal plants to deal with a potential electricity shortage


Coal supply issues, a rush on electric heaters and the precarious situation of southern states have raised fears that a gas shortfall could also push Germany into a power crunch.

The economy ministry was concerned enough that it launched a “stress test” of the grid earlier this month. The results, expected within weeks, will determine whether Berlin needs to rethink its approach to nuclear.

The analysis is expected to point to particular risk in Bavaria, where the conservative government has long battled against both wind turbines and high-voltage lines that could bring green power from windswept northern states. The state also has little coal power.

While nuclear power contributes less than 6 percent to Germany’s power mix, for Bavaria, it’s double that: The Isar II plant near Munich generates about 12 percent of the state’s electricity. The region’s gas storage is also filled at below average.

That was enough to shift the stance of the Munich city government, where the Greens are the largest party.

“If the stress test … shows that Munich is threatened by a power supply bottleneck, a stretch-out operation of Isar II must not be taboo,” Green Deputy Mayor Katrin Habenschaden said. “As mayor, the security of supply for the people of Munich is my top priority.”


Party split


Many senior Greens are sending out mixed messages.

Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has both said that all options need to be considered in an emergency and that nuclear power wasn’t the answer to the current crisis. Climate and Economy Minister Robert Habeck has declined to rule out an extension while arguing that nuclear power wouldn’t save very much gas.

But there’s also pushback. Britta Haßelmann, parliamentary leader of the Greens, said the phaseout cannot be “called into question.” Environment Minister Steffi Lemke, responsible for nuclear safety, has also voiced opposition.

Although it’s mostly the older generation of Greens for whom marching with now-iconic buttons labeled Atomkraft? Nein danke (“Nuclear power? No thanks!”) formed their political awakening, even the Greens’ youth leadership has called the debate “dangerous.”

Some of the fiercest resistance is expected from Greens in Lower Saxony, which over decades saw some of the most intense protests against nuclear power. The state is heading for elections in the fall.

Germany's Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and Climate and Economy Robert Habeck are both from the Greens


“Nuclear power is not the easy solution, it is a highly dangerous fake solution, even in the short term,” Julia Willie Hamburg, the Greens’ candidate for the Lower Saxony premiership, told local media.

Their base is similarly split: A recent survey found 61 percent of Germans in favor of keeping nuclear plants online, but 57 percent of Green supporters against.


Months, not years


The Greens have faced a similar dilemma before. The party was rooted in pacifism as much as in the anti-nuclear movement — and then it found itself in government during the Kosovo war in 1999.

An extraordinary party conference, in which Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer was pelted with red paint, ended with a vote in support of German participation in NATO’s Kosovo intervention. There was a small exodus of pacifist members, but the party survived. These days, the Greens are often at the forefront of demanding weapons for Ukraine.

The Lower Saxony Greens are expected to demand an ad-hoc party conference should the national leadership back a nuclear extension.

The Greens in Berlin, meanwhile, have tried to avoid a public falling out by suggesting a party line to take on the issue.

An internal email from the party headquarters to various branches, obtained by Die Welt, asked for questions on the nuclear issue to be answered “calmly.”

The Isar II plant near Munich generates about 12 percent of Bavaria's electricity


The email suggests the following line: “As soon as the results [of the grid stress test] are available, possible further measures will be discussed — as before — on the basis of the facts. We reject an extension of the operating term, i.e. the procurement of new fuel rods.”

The last line is where the compromise could lie.

While conservatives have called on the government to procure new nuclear fuel and liberals have suggested a new phaseout deadline of 2024, Greens who have softened their stance still reject a longer runtime.

Their focus is on stretching existing fuel supply, which doesn’t require new uranium rods.

Several experts have said this wouldn’t produce more electricity and just stretch power generation over a longer period — although the Munich Greens, for example, cite safety inspectors as saying that the Isar II plant could create an additional 5 terawatt-hours until August 2023 this way.

New rods would give several more years of power, significantly delaying the phaseout — which the Greens want to avoid — and also create additional nuclear waste.

It’s not quite “yes please” to nuclear power. But it would be a major shift away from “nein danke.”

Newsletter

Related Articles

Saudi Press
0:00
0:00
Close
Wave of Complaints Against Apple Over iPhone 17 Pro’s Scratch Sensitivity
Syria Holds First Elections Since Fall of Assad
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
Nvidia and Abu Dhabi’s TII Launch First AI-&-Robotics Lab in the Middle East
UK, Canada, and Australia Officially Recognise Palestine in Historic Shift
New Eye Drops Show Promise in Replacing Reading Glasses for Presbyopia
Dubai Property Boom Shows Strain as Flippers Get Buyer’s Remorse
Top AI Researchers Are Heading Back to China as U.S. Struggles to Keep Pace
JWST Data Brings TRAPPIST-1e Closer to Earth-Like Habitability
UAE-US Stargate Project Poised to Make Abu Dhabi a Global AI Powerhouse
Trump and Starmer Clash Over UK Recognition of Palestinian State Amid State Visit
Saudi Arabia cracks down on music ‘lounges’ after conservative backlash
Saudi Arabia Signs ‘Strategic Mutual Defence’ Pact with Pakistan, Marking First Arab State to Gain Indirect Access to Nuclear Strike Capabilities in the Region
Sam Altman sells the 'Wedding Estate' in Hawaii for 49 million dollars
Turkish car manufacturer Togg Enters German Market with 5-Star Electric Sedan and SUV to Challenge European EV Brands
World’s Longest Direct Flight China Eastern to Launch 29-Hour Shanghai–Buenos Aires Direct Flight via Auckland in December
New OpenAI Study Finds Majority of ChatGPT Use Is Personal, Not Professional
Kuwait opens bidding for construction of three cities to ease housing crunch.
This Week in AI: Meta’s Superintelligence Push, xAI’s Ten Billion-Dollar Raise, Genesis AI’s Robotics Ambitions, Microsoft Restructuring, Amazon’s Million-Robot Milestone, and Google’s AlphaGenome Update
Indian Student Engineers Propose “Project REBIRTH” to Protect Aircraft from Crashes Using AI, Airbags and Smart Materials
Could AI Nursing Robots Help Healthcare Staffing Shortages?
Turkish authorities seize leading broadcaster amid fraud and tax investigation
Qatari prime minister says Netanyahu ‘killed any hope’ for Israeli hostages
Apple Introduces Ultra-Thin iPhone Air, Enhanced 17 Series and New Health-Focused Wearables
Big Oil Slashes Jobs and Investments Amid Prolonged Low Crude Prices
Social Media Access Curtailed in Turkey After CHP Calls for Rallies Following Police Blockade of Istanbul Headquarters
Did the Houthis disrupt the internet in the Middle East? Submarine cables cut in the Red Sea
Gold Could Reach Nearly $5,000 if Fed Independence Is Undermined, Goldman Sachs Warns
Uruguay, Colombia and Paraguay Secure Places at 2026 World Cup
Trump Administration Advances Plans to Rebrand Pentagon as Department of War Instead of the Fake Term Department of Defense
Tether Expands into Gold Sector with Profit-Driven Diversification
Trump’s New War – and the ‘Drug Tyrant’ Fearing Invasion: ‘1,200 Missiles Aimed at Us’
At the Parade in China: Laser Weapons, 'Eagle Strike,' and a Missile Capable of 'Striking Anywhere in the World'
Information Warfare in the Age of AI: How Language Models Become Targets and Tools
Israeli Airstrike in Yemen Kills Houthi Prime Minister
After the Shock of Defeat, Iranians Yearn for Change
YouTube Altered Content by Artificial Intelligence – Without Permission
Iran Faces Escalating Water Crisis as Protests Spread
More Than Half a Million Evacuated as Typhoon Kajiki Heads for Vietnam
HSBC Switzerland Ends Relationships with Over 1,000 Clients from Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Qatar, and Egypt
Sharia Law Made Legally Binding in Austria Despite Warnings Over 'Incompatible' Values
Dogfights in the Skies: Airbus on Track to Overtake Boeing and Claim Aviation Supremacy
Tim Cook Promises an AI Revolution at Apple: "One of the Most Significant Technologies of Our Generation"
Are AI Data Centres the Infrastructure of the Future or the Next Crisis?
Miles Worth Billions: How Airlines Generate Huge Profits
Zelenskyy Returns to White House Flanked by European Allies as Trump Pressures Land-Swap Deal with Putin
Beijing is moving into gold and other assets, diversifying away from the dollar
×