Germany’s three remaining reactors will be shut down by Saturday, ending nuclear power production in Europe’s largest economy. But their closure comes as Europe faces questions about whether it can provide enough energy to power its economy and keep its homes warm while meeting ambitious climate targets.

This German move sets it apart from much of the industrialized world. The UK, Finland and France are doubling down on nuclear power as a source of reliable, ultra-low carbon electricity. Last year, Poland signed an agreement with Westinghouse Electric to build its first nuclear power plant, about 300 kilometers from the border with Germany.

In the United States, the Biden administration is supporting the technology of building a new generation of smaller nuclear reactors as a tool for “massive decarbonization.”

Some polls show that even Germans, who once largely supported shutting down production in their country, have doubts: in a poll by Germany’s largest newspaper Bild, 52% were opposed to ending nuclear power, given that the country is moving away from its dependence on Russian fossil fuels. .

Control?

Robert Habek, economics minister and Green Party member, insists that Germany can handle a nuclear failure. He noted that natural gas storage tanks in the country are filled above the waist, and this is a significant safety cushion due to the almost end of the heating season. And Germany has quickly built liquefied natural gas terminals that allow it to import gas from cargo ships rather than through Russian pipelines that once provided about 55 percent of Germany’s supplies.

“Energy security in Germany has been secured this difficult winter and will continue to be so,” Mr. Habeck said in an interview with Funke Media Group. On the contrary, new nuclear power plants in Europe have failed, he argued, due to rising costs, construction delays and maintenance problems: “Our energy system will be structured differently: by 2030 we will have 80% renewable sources energy.”

Nuclear power has been a longstanding issue in German politics. Peace activists, terrified by the Cold War, have been fighting nuclear power since the 1970s, and some of them became founding members of the Greens, now part of Germany’s three-party coalition government. The anti-nuclear movement that emerged after the Chernobyl disaster in 1986 created a cloud of nuclear explosions that reached West Germany, leaving the current generation traumatized.

By 2000, the center-left government approved a plan to shut down German nuclear power, but Angela Merkel’s conservative government canceled it.

However, the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan again turned German public opinion sharply against nuclear power, and Ms Merkel fought back. Her government has passed legislation to phase out Germany’s 17 nuclear reactors by the end of 2022.

War factor

The nuclear debate took a new turn last year when Germany went through the winter for the first time without fuel from Russia. As officials urged businesses and consumers to reduce their energy consumption or face rationing, Chancellor Olaf Solz has extended the life of the last three power plants until April 15 to ensure enough energy at a reasonable price until spring.

But with no end in sight to the war in Ukraine, business leaders are warning that now is not the time to turn off a source of relatively cheap electricity. “We must continue to do our best to expand energy supply and under no circumstances cut it further,” said Peter Adrian, head of the German Chamber of Commerce and Industry, warning that energy instability could jeopardize the country’s position as an industrial center.

On Thursday, more than 20 scientists and Nobel laureates from around the world sent a letter to Scholz urging him to change course, calling nuclear energy a valuable alternative to greenhouse gas-emitting power plants.

“Germany’s electricity grid remains one of the most carbon dependent in Europe,” an alliance called RePlanet, which signed the letter, said in a statement.

The three German reactors scheduled for shutdown are safe and can continue to provide electricity at relatively low cost for many years, making the decision to shut them down costly, said Georg Zachmann, climate and energy expert at the Bruegel think tank in Brussels. .

At the same time, he said, power plants under construction in the UK, Finland and France are over budget, making the energy they can produce three times more expensive.

“I wouldn’t say that only the Germans are crazy,” Mr. Zachman said. “Shutting down an existing nuclear power plant is expensive, and building a new one is expensive.”