Berlin — The Bundesrat, or the upper house of the German parliament, has also approved an extension of the use of three nuclear power plants until April of next year.
On Friday, the Bundesrat refrained from calling on the mediation committee for this law, meaning that it can enter into force immediately.
The Bundestag had already approved the law earlier this month.
The Isar 2, Neckarwestheim 2 and Emsland nuclear power plants will thus remain in operation for a few months longer to secure the electricity supply this winter. In the course of the nuclear phase-out, they should actually have been shut down at the end of the year.
There had been heated arguments within Chancellor Olaf Scholz's three-party federal government, especially between the Greens and the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP), about the possible continued use of the three power plants.
Scholz recently decided that they should continue operating given the squeeze on energy as a result of the war in Ukraine and Russia turning off supplies of gas, ending squabbling between the parties in his coalition.
©2022 dpa GmbH. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.