Germany Admits Shutting Down Nuclear Power Was a Huge Mistake

Nuclear power is reliable with low carbon emissions

Germany’s decision to shut down all its nuclear power plants was a “huge mistake” and has come at a high cost to the economy, said the German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.

“It was a serious strategic mistake to phase out nuclear energy,” Merz added, “We simply don’t have enough energy generation capacity.”

How did Germany get here?

To understand why the Chancellor is calling this a strategic error, we have to rewind to the early 2000s, when the German government had planned to exit nuclear power. But then the Fukushima disaster happened in Japan in March 2011 and made waves around the world, which reached Germany.

After the then-Chancellor Angela Merkel, the government moved quickly to speed up the exit plan. The goal was the Energiewende (energy turnaround)—a massive shift designed to reduce nuclear risks and transition the entire country to renewables. Throughout the 2010s, Germany’s nuclear fleet was shut down piece by piece.

And the present chancellor Merz is saying that this rapid shift has created a financial burden that no other nation is dealing with.

“So we are now undertaking the most expensive energy transition in the entire world, I know of no other country that makes things so expensive and difficult as Germany.”

The critical moment came just recently. The phase-out officially ended in April 2023, when the final three reactors—Isar 2, Emsland, and Neckarwestheim 2—were taken offline for good.

This happened during a chaotic time. Europe was in the grip of an energy crisis following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Despite the panic and debates about energy security, the government at the time only extended the reactors' lives by three months before shutting them down permanently.

Merz specifically pinpointed that final shutdown as a missed opportunity to save the economy from its current stress.

“If you are going to do it, you should at least have left the last remaining nuclear power plant in Germany on the grid three years ago,” Merz said yesterday, “so that you at least have the electricity generation capacity that we had up until then.”

Why reactivating those reactors isn’t easy – even for Germany

While Merz’s party (CDU) has suggested looking into reactivating plants, the reality on the ground makes that nearly impossible. Once a reactor stops, it is de-fueled, safety systems are dismantled, and licenses are revoked.

According to Clean Energy Wire and the World Nuclear Association, restarting these plants would require billions of euros, new safety approvals, and the rebuilding of large sections of the facilities. In contrast, neighboring France generates up to 70% of its electricity from nuclear power and is planning to build six new reactors.

With Germany’s nuclear capacity gone and replacements incomplete, the state now props up the system to keep prices affordable.

“To achieve acceptable market prices again, we would need permanent federal subsidies,” Merz said.

He warned this cannot continue.

“We can’t do this in the long run. We inherited this—and now we have to correct it.”