A recent investigation has revealed that the final steps in phasing out nuclear power in Germany were partly based on false information. And doesn’t look like it was a mistake, but a deliberate rewriting of what was originally accurate information.
The Green party in Germany has always been more focused on eliminating nuclear power than reducing environmental impact and that is exactly what happened. The German nuclear phase out has been accelerated at the expense of burning more polluting coal and lignite. The final phase in 2022 and 2023, at a time when Germany was crying out for cheap energy, was made possible by somebody within government altering a report to suggest it wasn’t safe to keep existing reactors running when in fact the opposite was true.
This lie has cost German consumers a great deal of money, caused a lot of extra pollution from coal power stations and risked the security of supply of electricity at a time when supplies of natural gas were already a huge problem.
German greens accused of lying over nuclear power safety to force plant shutdowns
Junior ministers covered up key technical reports, claims media outlet
Green party ministers in Germany have been accused of lying about safety issues at the country’s nuclear power plants to ensure they were shut down, even as the war in Ukraine threatened European energy supplies.
A German media outlet has accused Green ministers in the country’s coalition government of covering up key technical reports that suggested keeping the nuclear plants open would have lessened the country’s energy squeeze in 2022.
The magazine Cicero claimed that Patrick Graichen and Stefan Tidow, junior Green ministers at the economy and environment ministries respectively, re-wrote the documents to falsely suggest that retaining the power stations was “not tenable” on technical or security grounds.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz subsequently ordered the operation of the plants to be extended by three months to April 2023 but after that point they were shut down as previously planned.
Russia’s invasion two years ago sent gas, coal and electricity prices rocketing, triggering a major crisis as markets panicked about the prospect of Moscow shutting off gas supplies to the Continent altogether.
At the time, Germany’s decision to push ahead with the shutdown of its last nuclear power stations – leaving it even more reliant on gas and coal – was branded “madness” by critics.
However Green ministers, who were partners in the three-party coalition under Mr Scholz, continued to insist that keeping the nuclear plants open would be dangerous and irresponsible.
AC