German election frontrunners push for nuclear comeback – SightLine | U308

Germany’s nuclear exit was meant to be final. But with energy costs soaring, conservatives are reopening the debate.

Only two years after Germany switched off its last reactor, the country’s nuclear debate is back with a vengeance, with the conservative Christian Democrats leading the charge to revive atomic power ahead of an election they are expected to win on Feb. 23.

Germany decided to phase out nuclear power after the Fukushima disaster in Japan in 2011, a decision that was widely supported at the time.

More recently, however, Germany has seriously questioned its energy mix after the Kremlin’s all-out invasion of Ukraine in 2022 exposed its dependence on Russian gas. Surging energy prices sapped Germany’s industrial competitiveness and pressured companies to move abroad.

“It is in our national interest to retain the option of nuclear power,” Jens Spahn, deputy parliamentary leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), told POLITICO.

“When a new generation of small and low-waste nuclear power plants is ready for the market, we should use it,” he added. “The demand for energy in the digital world is increasing instead of decreasing.”

The CDU and its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union, are widely expected to lead the next government and are making nuclear energy a defining election issue. The party’s manifesto explicitly calls for research into next-generation nuclear technology, including small modular reactors (SMRs).

Friedrich Merz, the CDU leader and chancellor candidate, is already floating the idea of collaborating with France. “We are considering whether we should build these small modular reactors — perhaps together with France,” he told Spiegel.

And they aren’t alone. The pro-business Free Democratic Party (FDP) has signaled openness to nuclear research. The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) is going even further, pushing for a complete reversal of Germany’s nuclear exit, aiming to revive large reactors.

But nuclear supporters are facing stiff resistance. Germany’s nuclear safety agency warns that SMRs remain largely untested, with unclear costs and feasibility.

That hasn’t stopped advocates from making their case. Rafael Laguna de la Vera, head of the government-backed innovation agency Sprind, argues Germany must get back in the nuclear game.

“Germany must not miss out on this important industrial revolution in the coming years,” he said. SMRs, he claimed, are “efficient and safe,” about the size of a heat pump but capable of powering entire cities for up to a decade with minimal maintenance and waste.

Many others are not as convinced about SMRs. The technology remains largely unproven, and serious questions remain about cost, viability, safety and whether the miniature reactors can be built efficiently.

The nuclear debate is also exposing Germany’s energy contradictions. The European Commission has labeled nuclear power a key pillar of the EU’s energy transition, while the U.S. and China are pouring billions into SMR development.

Laguna saw this as a wake-up call for Germany after spending years establishing renewable energy sources, which accounted for 62 percent of public electricity generation last year, according to the Fraunhofer Institute. “We won’t be able to satisfy the energy hunger of the coming years with wind turbines and solar parks alone — and certainly not in a climate-neutral way,” he said.

Source: Politico

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