Germany’s government on Monday failed to reach an agreement on a draft law that would have extended the life of its two remaining nuclear power plants beyond their planned phase-out in December, further complicating the country’s perilous energy supply situation this winter.
Germany’s economy ministry told Reuters that its cabinet was politically divided over the extension plans. Those plans would have placed its two remaining power plants online for emergency use through at least April.
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The disagreements threaten the extension of the Isar II power plant, one of the two remaining plants that had been slated to go offline later this month for a week to prepare it for the 2023 extension. The plant operator said it “needs clarity” on the government’s plans before moving forward.
“This means that the tight schedule for the procedure cannot be kept,” a spokesperson for the ministry told Reuters.
Weeks earlier, German Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck announced that the two remaining power plants had passed a stress test necessary to be kept online.
After running a “worst case” stress test, Habeck said, leaders had come to the conclusion that “hourly crisis-like situations in the electricity supply system during winter 22/23, while very unlikely, cannot be fully ruled out.”
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Power plant operators were informed of the delay on Monday.
