Germany’s Finance Minister has called for the country to keep using nuclear power to ease the ongoing energy crisis, despite one energy tsar in the country labelling it “backwards”.
Christian Lindner, an elected representative who serves as Germany’s Finance Minister, has called for his country to keep using its remaining nuclear power plants for some time, despite the fact that they are scheduled to be shut down by the end of this year.
The call comes after critics of the government labelled the plan to end the use of nuclear in Germany during a period when the country is facing immense energy insecurity as “complete nonsense”.
While the nation’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz has so far resisted external calls to extend nuclear power, according to a report by Die Welt, he is now seeing those within his own cabinet calling for continued use of the technology.
“My concern is that in a few weeks and months we could have a very worrying situation. And in this situation we must not be picky,” Minister Lindner is noted by the publication as saying.
The finance minister went on to say that Germany is now facing years of hardship and shortages, and that it would be better to rely on nuclear to help alleviate that instead of relying on the reintroduction of fuels that are more damaging to the climate.
“…I’m not satisfied that we are extending the [use of] climate-damaging coal, but not even considering the possibilities of nuclear energy,” the Freie Demokratische party representative stated.
Despite this aforementioned swing towards the likes of coal in a desperate attempt to keep the lights on, officials in Germany for the most part appear to be resisting calls to keep the country’s three remaining nuclear plants from being shut down.
This includes the head of the German energy company RWE, who has condemned the idea that nuclear could be kept going in the country as “backwards”, despite the fact that Russia has dramatically cut the amount of gas being sent to Germany, thus leaving the country with very few options for powering homes and businesses.
“We have to bring the new technologies on board and not have discussions about whether something will run for a month longer,” remarked CEO Markus Krebber, who also said that he was “a little surprised” the debate was happening in the first place.
Krebber went on to repeat claims made by Scholz that it was “too late” to restore the use of nuclear in the country, as the plants were already in the process of being shut down and that continuing their operation would require the sourcing of hard-to-find fuel rods.
“We have to take care of the things that really solve the problems,” he went on to claim, saying that it would be better for the country to build more gas infrastructure than for engaging in a nuclear debate that Der Spiegel described as “going nowhere”.
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