German government confirmed "nuclear blackout" for April 15

Berlin-This Sunday it was announced by the German government that it will maintain its goal of proceeding with the "nuclear shutdown" on April 15, when the last three plants will be disconnected.

This will be done after havingapproved in 2022 a postponement of three and a half months to the initial schedule thathad been planned to say goodbye to this energy source.

The Minister for the Environment, the Green Steffi Lemke, confirmed in statements to the "Mediengruppe" media group that this time there will be no new extension or standby situation for these last active plants, since the energy supply is guaranteed.

"The risks of atomic energy are uncontrollable," the minister added.

This for whom the energy supply situation in Germany is better than in some "neighboring countries" more dependent on their nuclear plants.

"Betting on the development of renewables will, in the long run, be the best way to ensure price stability in the sector," according to Lemke.

The nuclear switch-off was scheduled for the end of 2022.

This nuclear switch-off was initially scheduled for December 31, 2022, which was the planned date for the deactivation of the last three plants.

But, it was by Chancellor Olaf Scholz's tripartite of Social Democrats, Greens and Liberals who approved an extension in October to secure supply in the face of the energy crisis precipitated by the war in Ukraine.

The decision was taken personally by Scholz, as his Liberal and Green partners failed to reach agreement.

Scholz made use of his special powers and ordered the three ministries involved - the Green-led Ministries of Economics and Climate Protection and the Environment, and the Finance Ministry, led by the Liberal Christian Lindner - to draw up a new regulation in order to open the corresponding parliamentary procedure.

Shutdown on April 15

The decision implied that the last plants - Isar 2 and Neckar 2, in the south of the country, and Lingen, in the center -would be disconnected on April 15, as a compromise solution to the pulse maintained by the head of Economy, the Green Robert Habeck, and the Liberal Lindner, at the head of Finance.

For the Greens, a party for whom the shutdown is a kind of sign of identity, any postponement was difficult to accept, while Lindner's Liberals insisted that the three plants should remain in operation or on standby until 2024.

Both Habeck and Lemke considered Scholz's decision to be acceptable, since it meant that no new fuel rods would have to be used - and no more radioactive waste would be generated - but that the existing ones would remain in operation until April 15.

The postponement meant a new modification in the calendar of the shutdown, first promoted by the Social Democrat Chancellor Gerhard Schröder in 2000, with the Greens as allies, and recovered in 2011 by the conservative Angela Merkel in the wake of the catastrophe at the Japanese Fukushima power plant.

Only for security of supply

The last three plants provided barely 6 % of total electricityconsumption by the end of 2022, but were considered necessary for security of supply.

Since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Germany has accelerated the reduction of its energy dependence on Moscow to a minimum.

In return, it has had to reactivate several coal mines, although it maintains the goal of abandoning this energy source as well between 2030 and 2038.

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