CDU-Merz: nuclear power stop is ideology

BERLIN. The CDU chairman Friedrich Merz has again spoken out against the end of the German nuclear power plants. “It has nothing to do with rationality, it’s ideology,” said the Union faction leader in the Bundestag in Rostock about the planned shutdown.

It is a dictate of common sense to let the four other power plants continue to run. In 2022, the traffic light government had postponed the planned shutdown at the end of the year in view of the energy shortage. April 15 should now mean the final end.

The federal government under Angela Merkel (CDU) decided to phase out nuclear power in 2011 after the accident in Fukushima. An earthquake and a tsunami had damaged the nuclear power plant there so severely that a core meltdown occurred.

Nuclear power is climate-friendly technology

For today’s chairman Merz, it is a mistake that there is still no alternative electricity production available. Merz spoke out in favor of nuclear power as a legitimate form of CO2-free power generation and referred to the recently presented climate report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). In addition, CO2 storage technologies and the production of hydrogen should be further developed. The problem of climate change cannot be solved with a “pure avoidance strategy”, said Merz.

There are also discussions within the traffic light government about the planned shutdown. Above all, the fact that Germany promotes nuclear energy through the European Union was criticized. And in turn have to import the electricity produced with it if wind and solar power plants do not produce enough electricity. “We use German tax money to promote a technology that we reject for our country,” says Gerald Ullrich, who sits on the Economic Committee for the FDP.

“I call for a new debate on nuclear power research, also within the government. We must not intentionally damage Germany’s competitiveness by excluding a future energy source across the board.” The Liberals had previously also called for the dismantling of the four nuclear power plants that were still complete not to begin. (mp)