"Three + three + three": Scheuer is now even demanding new nuclear power plants and is met with disbelief - "absurd"

Created: 08/29/2022 05:09

By: Florian Naumann

Andreas Scheuer (archive image).

© Kay Nietfeld/dpa/archive image

Germany as a "supplicant" - and on the way to "deindustrialization".

Andreas Scheuer warns and delivers an unorthodox idea for a solution: new nuclear power plants.

Berlin/Munich - The CSU has once again fueled the debate about the future of nuclear power in Germany - with an unexpectedly far-reaching initiative: the former Christian Social Transport Minister Andreas Scheuer proposed

a "3 + 3 + 3" formula in the

"Three nuclear power plants need to run longer, three need to be reactivated, and three need to be built from scratch," he said.

Above all, the idea of ​​building a new nuclear power plant is a new twist – not on a global level, but in the current German discussion.

Scheuer then immediately received criticism.

For example from the Greens, but also from the ranks of the Union.

Scheuer also harshly judged the progress made by the traffic light coalition in the search for new energy suppliers - and the economic situation in Germany.

"Green ideology trap"?

Scheuer (CSU) calls for new nuclear power plants – because of the risk of “de-industrialization”.

A reliable supply of energy to the economy is necessary, otherwise "Germany's deindustrialization will progress," said Scheuer.

In the energy crisis as a result of Russian President Vladimir Putin's war of aggression against Ukraine, Germany had "become a supplicant in the world" and was getting exports for new gas in Qatar, Canada and Norway.

Germany is “in the ideological trap of the Greens”.

The CSU politician called for "technology openness" in the energy supply.

"I also took part in the phase-out of nuclear power and the phase-out of coal," Scheuer admitted.

He was a member of the federal government as Minister of Transport until the end of 2021, and is currently a simple member of the Bundestag.

However, Scheuer emphasized that the nuclear and coal phase-out seemed possible because a “stable and cheap gas supply” should have been connected to the grid via the Nord Stream 2 Baltic Sea pipeline, “because there was peace and we didn’t have an aggressor like Putin”.

In a tweet, the head of the Greens parliamentary group, Britta Haßelmann, accused Scheuer of Bavaria's problems and attitudes in energy policy: the CSU had prevented the expansion of the power grid and wind energy in Bavaria and rejected a repository for nuclear waste in Bavaria: "This is CSU Politics, simply irresponsible.” “False.

It will take at least 20 years,” the former CDU General Secretary Ruprecht Polenz objected to Scheuer’s proposals.

The social network also discussed the question of how Scheuer came up with the number of three nuclear power plants to be built.

Electricity misery in Europe: Head of the network agency does not rule out longer terms for nuclear power plants

Meanwhile, the President of the Federal Network Agency does not rule out that German reactors could remain connected to the grid longer due to an impending power shortage in Europe.

"The ongoing stress tests deal with the question of whether our nuclear power plants have to remain connected to the grid longer in order to cover our and Europe's electricity needs in winter," he told the

.

This is currently being “thoroughly calculated”.

At the moment, "too much gas is being converted into electricity in Germany, mainly to help France, because not enough electricity can be generated there due to the problems with the nuclear power plants there," said Müller.

Nuclear power “cannot help against a gas shortage in Germany, because we need the gas as a raw material in the chemical industry and for combined heat and power, i.e. for heating”.

"Nuclear power is no substitute for either of these," said Müller.

Nuclear power plant dispute in Germany: Baerbock against extensions - Lemke insists on safety tests

However, Environment Minister Steffi Lemke (Greens) insists that the nuclear power plants undergo a safety check before they continue to operate after the end of the year.

That would mean shutting down the piles and stopping them for several months from January and would also apply to a shorter so-called stretching operation, she told the

.

"The last periodic safety check took place in 2009 and should have been carried out again in 2019 according to EU regulations."

In the current nuclear phase-out law, the term ends on December 31, 2022, and that is the only reason why the review for the remaining three years was suspended, said Lemke.

"Because the test was suspended for so long, it would have to be made up for if the term was extended." The federal government alone could not prevent the standstill for the revision.

"If there should be an extension, the Atomic Energy Act must be changed - only the Bundestag can do that," said Lemke.

Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) once again spoke out firmly against extending the service life of the three remaining power plants.

"I think all the measures that help us get through the winter are right, but I'm not convinced that nuclear power plants will solve our gas problem," she told

.

Those who just talked about nuclear power, it's not about the stretching operation.

"They want a backwards roll to nuclear power," Baerbock explained.

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