A consortium of buyers has reportedly been pursuing plans to restart the EU nation’s 9 reactors
US corporations have been assessing the feasibility and prices of restarting Germany’s decommissioned nuclear energy crops, Bild reported on Friday. The EU’s largest financial system has been fighting hovering vitality prices and a chronic financial slowdown.
Germany shut down its final three reactors in April 2023, following a post-Fukushima parliamentary determination to section out atomic vitality. Nonetheless, with the nation’s industrial output below stress, calls to reverse the coverage have been gaining momentum.
This week, politicians and nuclear vitality advocates met in Berlin to debate the feasibility of reactivating the nation’s mothballed crops. Amongst them was US nuclear engineer Mark Nelson, founding father of Radiant Power Group, who has been analyzing how shortly and affordably a nuclear restart may occur.
“There’s no cheaper approach to generate electrical energy anyplace on the earth than along with your absolutely paid-off nuclear crops,” Nelson informed Bild. Backed by a consortium of buyers, he believes that 9 German reactors may very well be introduced again on-line. Arguments that nuclear energy is simply too costly, he mentioned, are based mostly on flawed assumptions or are politically motivated.
Nelson additionally argued that renewable vitality alone stays inadequate. In Q1 2025, renewables accounted for simply 47% of Germany’s electrical energy consumption.
Germany relied closely on inexpensive Russian gasoline to energy its business earlier than the Ukraine battle, and ramped up electrical energy imports in 2023 after shutting down its final nuclear crops. With the EU aiming to finish its reliance on Russian vitality, Berlin now plans to spend €20 billion ($23 billion) on new gas-fired energy stations to assist shifting away from coal and keep provide stability.
Moscow has repeatedly mentioned it stays a dependable provider and is open to restarting gasoline exports to Europe. Nonetheless, Chancellor Friedrich Merz reportedly opposes any resumption of Russian gasoline purchases.
Germany’s vitality crunch has taken a toll on its financial system, now in its third straight yr of recession. Practically 200,000 corporations shut down in 2024 – the best determine since 2011, in response to Creditreform. In April 2025, firm insolvencies exceeded ranges recorded through the 2008 monetary disaster.
Fatih Birol, head of the Worldwide Power Company (IEA), informed Bild he expects “a significant nuclear comeback.”
From an financial perspective, he mentioned, Germany will want “each storable renewables and nuclear vitality.”
Merz, a longtime critic of Germany’s nuclear phaseout, has reportedly proven assist for investing in small modular reactors and nuclear fusion applied sciences.
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