And it seemed that the door leading to a kind of extension in the work of these stations had caused a rift after the Ministry of Economy announced in mid-July a new “voltage test” for the security of electricity supply. It is supposed to consider a more stringent scenario than the previous test, conducted in May, which found supplies guaranteed.
Since then, Russia has reduced natural gas supplies through its Nord Stream 1 pipeline to Germany to 20 percent of total capacity amid tensions over the war in Ukraine. It has invoked technical problems that Germany says are just a pretext for more political influence.
Russian gas supplies make up about a third of German gas imports, and there are fears Russia will shut down the tap completely.
The main opposition bloc has made repeated demands to extend the life of Germany’s nuclear plants. Similar calls come from the smallest party in the pro-business coalition government of Chancellor Olaf Scholz, the pro-business Liberal Democrat.
But calls for expanded use of nuclear power are an embarrassment to the two other ruling parties, Schulz’s centre-left Social Democrats and, in particular, Robert Habeck, the leader of the Green Party, where opposition to nuclear power is a cornerstone of the party’s identity.
Habek has always emphasized that the continued operation of these reactors will be legally and technically complicated and will not do much to address the problems caused by the shortage of gas, stressing that natural gas is not a factor in generating electricity as much as it is a factor in feeding industrial processes and providing heating.
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