Greens leaders back German nuke extension, grassroots angry

Senior members of Germany’s environmentalist Greens party have indicated that they would accept Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s decision to extend the lifetime of the country’s three remaining nuclear plants for a few months

Germany Nuclear Plants (Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

Senior members of Germany's environmentalist Greens party indicated Tuesday that they would accept Chancellor Olaf Scholz's decision to extend the lifetime of the country's three remaining nuclear plants for a few months.

The reactors were long scheduled to be switched off at the end of the year, but Economy Minister Robert Habeck agreed to let two plants run until mid-April amid a feared energy crunch. Some in the government insisted that all three reactors should stay online until 2024, prompting a Cabinet spat that Scholz overruled Monday.

Habeck told public broadcaster ZDF that the plan was “one I can work with, one I can live with.”

Greens chairman Omid Nouripour said Scholz's top-down decision also effectively ended the debate over whether to buy new fuel for the reactors and operate them beyond April 15.

“That's good,” he tweeted.

Still, Nouripour said the third reactor, Emsland in the northwest of the country, wasn't required to safeguard Germany's power supply. Experts have made a similar case, arguing that the north of the country has so much wind power that it doesn't need nuclear energy.

An alliance of anti-nuclear groups in the Emsland region slammed Scholz's decision. They said the aging reactor poses a considerable risk, noting that it hasn't undergone period safety inspections for years.

The groups said they plan to stage protests against the decision in the coming weeks.