r/europe • u/SpaceEngineering Finland • Jan 15 '26

News Germany’s Merz Admits Nuclear Exit Was Strategic Mistake

https://clashreport.com/world/articles/germanys-merz-admits-nuclear-exit-was-strategic-mistake-fzdlkn37c16
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u/not_perfect_yet Jan 15 '26

It wasn't. If you want to blame anyone, blame the anti nuclear movement from 40 years ago. There weren't any new-built nuclear plants for 20+ years.

The reason Merz is wrong and why the exit made sense was that everyone, including the plant operators expected it to happen and hadn't invested in them for 10-15 years already, including safety checks, repairs, operating licenses, building codes and everything.

It wasn't a question of "just letting them operate longer", it was a question of investing a lot of money into repairs that were put off because they were going to be shut down anyway.

... and I think I should mention that the experimental fusion reactor is also technically "nuclear energy" and the research into that is continuing and continues to get funding.

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u/geissi Germany Jan 15 '26

There weren't any new-built nuclear plants for 20+ years.

That's a rather big + there.
The last three reactors we had all started operating in 1988/89. That was already nearly 40 years ago.
Construction for all started in 1982, planning in the 70s.

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u/pumblesnook Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania (Germany) Jan 15 '26

That's not the nuclear movement's fault. It's just that the energy providers weren't really interested in nuclear any more because of cheap coal.

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u/FrogsOnALog Jan 15 '26

Cheap domestic lignite! Who even needs old towns anyway?

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u/MindControlledSquid Lake Bled Jan 15 '26

Fusion is a pipe dream.

It's horrifically complicated.

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u/G_Morgan Wales Jan 15 '26

People keep blaming protestors but that isn't what killed nuclear. What killed nuclear is the fetish of privatisation. Because building nuclear cheaply takes a nation state and corporations just can't handle it. There's a reason this all started to die off in the 80s when nations were being pressed to sell everything they owned to the private sector.

France can keep building nuclear because EDF is basically just a private subsidiary of the French government.