Enlarge image
Nuclear power plant Isar 2 in Lower Bavaria
Photo: Wolfgang Maria Weber / IMAGO
Leading representatives of the Greens are keeping open a limited further operation of German nuclear power plants beyond the end of the year.
Actually, the last three reactors should then go offline, but against the background of the Russian attack on the Ukraine and possible energy bottlenecks in winter, the possible benefits of nuclear power are now being discussed.
Green Economics Minister Robert Habeck has announced a so-called stress test.
The aim is to clarify whether nuclear energy can help to overcome an energy crisis in winter.
A first stress test in May came to the conclusion that security of supply would also be guaranteed without nuclear power.
Now it is to be checked again under "tightened assumptions".
At the same time, the former Green Environment Minister, Jürgen Trittin, critically commented on his party's change of course.
The new openness has met with approval from the supporters of the Greens.
According to a survey by opinion research institute Civey for SPIEGEL, 49 percent of this group rate it positively that Habeck and Co. no longer rule out continued operation of the remaining nuclear power plants beyond the end of the year.
32 percent, on the other hand, see it negatively, 19 percent were undecided.
Overall, the supporters of the Greens are more skeptical about an extension of the term than those of the CDU/CSU, FDP and AfD.
In these groups, over 80 percent rate the openness towards nuclear power positively.
Read the background to the Civey methodology here.
The mood among the general public is also positive: 70 percent of Germans approve of Habeck's approach, while 21 percent see it negatively.
The positive view of a possible temporary continued operation of the nuclear power plant is also evident across all age groups.
More than 70 percent of those surveyed between the ages of 18 and 29 and those over 65 rate it positively that leading Greens do not rule out continued operation.
Depending on the age group, however, up to 25 percent see it negatively.
The Union parties, but especially the FDP as a partner of the Greens in the traffic light coalition, are driving the debate further.
They are no longer concerned with extending the service life by a few months - in Green jargon: "drawing operation" - but rather by years.
The head of the Greens, Ricarda Lang, recently dismissed this on ZDF as “return to nuclear power” and ruled it out for her party.
so-called
