From Montel (European energy) News, February 28:
Germany could be eyeing a return of nuclear power just two years after it was phased out should early polling for the next general election prove correct, with one leading politician saying current energy policy is crumbling.
Polls indicate the centre-right Christian Democrats (CDU), which now supports a revival of the country’s nuclear power assets after signing a declaration in January, could garner around 30% of the votes in next year’s election, meaning the current opposition would likely spearhead any coalition.
After the 2011 Fukushima nuclear accident, a CDU-led government championed the push to phase out the generation source, which accounted for nearly a third of Germany’s power at its height, in 1997.
Look again
“I am very aware that it gets harder every day to reverse our exit [from nuclear],” said party member and MEP Peter Liese at a recent energy conference.“We need to seriously re-examine what is possible.”
His comments came in the light of the country’s looming exit from coal-fired generation in 2030 and recent warnings the lights could go out unless an additional 11 GW of gas-fired capacity was built to bridge the transition to renewables.
“A key aspect of our strategy crumbled,” CDU lawmaker Mark Helfrich told Montel, adding it was important to admit the party’s “basic assumptions” on nuclear had “fundamentally changed”.....
....MUCH MORE, including (specious) arguments against.
