Agency Report –
Berlin – Germany’s Committee of Inquiry into the country’s nuclear phase-out is set to hold its final session on Thursday, with Economy Minister Robert Habeck and Chancellor Olaf Scholz scheduled to testify.
The committee has been investigating the German government’s decision-making processes regarding adjustments to the national energy supply in response to changes in the supply situation since the start of Russia’s war against Ukraine.
Initially, Germany planned to shut down its last three reactors by the end of 2022. However, the Russian invasion of Ukraine triggered a debate over energy security, leading to a delay in the phase-out to April 2023.
The inquiry’s “aim is to investigate which information was used as the basis for making decisions, which national and international bodies were included in the decision-making processes and whether the inclusion of further information or bodies would have been appropriate,” the Bundestag, or lower house of parliament, states on its website.
While Habeck’s Green Party had long opposed extending reactor operations, it ultimately supported a temporary reserve plan for two of the last three reactors, proposed by Habeck and the plant operators in September 2022.
The pro-business Free Democrats (FDP), then junior coalition partner in the German government, had advocated for a longer extension.
In October 2022, Scholz, a Social Democrat, made a decisive ruling, allowing all three reactors to continue operating until at least the spring of 2023.
