Two separate opinion polls undertaken in Germany have both shown that the greater number of those polled want the life of the country’s three remaining nuclear power reactors to be extended, World Nuclear News has pointed out. The three reactors are currently scheduled to be shut down at the end of this year, for political and not technical reasons.

Following the tsunami-triggered nuclear accident at Fukushima Daiichi in Japan in March 2011, the German government of then Chancellor Angela Merkel passed legislation, later that same year, to phase out all nuclear power in the country by the end of this year (2022). At that time, Germany had 14 operating nuclear power reactors, providing some 25% of the country’s electricity.

Eight of these reactors were shut down immediately. Three more were shut down at the end of last year. But this made Germany dependent on greenhouse-gas emitting fossil fuel imports from Russia. And this dependence on Russia became a crisis following the Russian invasion of Ukraine earlier this year.

An online poll of 5 000 people undertaken for renowned news magazine Der Spiegel by the Civey institute, carried out on August 2 and August 3, found 67% supported keeping the reactors in operation for another five years. Only 27% opposed this. However, when it came to constructing new nuclear power plants, only 41% would support this, while 52% opposed the idea.

The other poll was a telephone and online survey of 1 313 people, carried out by ARD-Deutschland/Trend. This found that 41% of respondents wanted the remaining reactors to stay operational for a few more months; further, 41% (again) supported the country’s continued use of nuclear energy in the long term. Only 15% wanted the reactors shut down at the end of this year, as currently scheduled. And 71% supported ending Germany’s dependence on energy imports from Russia (24% opposed doing so). 

Interestingly, of the supporters of the anti-nuclear Green Party who were polled by ARD-Deutschland/Trend, 61% were in favour of extending the life of the remaining reactors, although only by a few months. Only 31% supported closing them down by the end of this year, and a mere 7% supported using nuclear energy in the long term.

Germany’s three remaining operating reactors are Emsland, Isar 2 and Neckarwestheim 2. Early this month, current German Chancellor Olaf Scholz remarked at a public event that keeping these three reactors in service could “make sense”. He added that a decision on this would not be made until a national electricity system stress test, currently under way, had been completed.