BERLIN (AP) – Senior members of Germany’s environmental Greens party indicated Tuesday they would accept Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s decision to extend the life of the country’s three remaining nuclear power plants by several months.
The reactors had long been scheduled to be shut down at the end of the year, but Economy Minister Robert Habeck agreed to keep the two plants running until mid-April amid fears of an energy crisis. Some in the government have insisted that all three reactors remain online until 2024, sparking a cabinet row that Scholz dismissed on 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 ended the debate over whether to buy new fuel for the reactors and use them after April 15.
“That’s good,” he tweeted.
Still, Nouripour said the third reactor, Emsland in the northwest of the country, was not needed to protect Germany’s electricity 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 power.
The alliance of anti-nuclear groups in the Emsland region condemned Scholz’s decision. They said the old reactor posed a significant risk, noting that it had failed periodic safety inspections for years.
The groups said they plan to organize protests against the decision in the coming weeks.
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