Summary
A new Innofact poll shows 55% of Germans support returning to nuclear power, a divisive issue influencing coalition talks between the CDU/CSU and SPD.
While 36% oppose the shift, support is strongest among men and in southern and eastern Germany.
About 22% favor restarting recently closed reactors; 32% support building new ones.
Despite nuclear support, 57% still back investment in renewables. The CDU/CSU is exploring feasibility, but the SPD and Greens remain firmly against reversing the nuclear phase-out, citing stability and past policy shifts.
Nuclear can’t be built fast enough to fill the gap. It’s likely better long-term to invest in additional renewables + gas plants instead, until the gas can be phased out as well. It’s still fossil for a bit, but since nuclear nearly always is over time and well beyond budget, it’s likely to be a net greener option. Gas is pretty cheap and above all very flexible, making it more suitable for baseline power than nuclear.
Which is why they should never have been decommissioned in the first place.
So we made a mistake, and to make up for it, we should make another one?
We made a mistake, and to make up for it, we should right the mistake. Unbelievable the way people’s brains just switch off when it comes to nuclear power.
Yeah, people just think “nuclear = good” without considering the time to build new reactors, the economic efficiency, and similar factors.
It’s true. People also discount nuclear because it’s a scary word. We should be researching any and all renewables, or we’re all going to have a very bad few decades (if we make it that far).
Sure, I’m not against research! But I am against diverting investments from renewables to nuclear, because this unavoidably slows down fossil phaseout.
Those plants were very old and already had their lifespan extended a couple times (for a lot of money). Ultimately they were decommissioned before the next end-of-life date, which perhaps was a bit early, but keeping them open indefinitely just wasn’t feasible.
Consider the downtime if they had decommissioned with the idea of building a new plant in the future. The future would look much less uncertain when it comes to energy needs.