Germany’s Nuclear Energy Association (KernD) is pressing CDU leader Friedrich Merz to act fast on reviving the country’s nuclear power plants. The group claims up to six reactors could be back online by 2030—despite the previous government shutting down the last of Germany’s 37 nuclear stations in 2023.
Restarting won’t come cheap. KernD estimates costs between €1 billion and €3 billion per reactor, depending on how much damage was done post-shutdown. Some plants weren’t just decommissioned—they were deliberately sabotaged. Take Grohnde and Brokdorf, for example—both had their primary water circuits flushed with acid, making future reactivation impossible.
Still, KernD argues that nuclear energy could stabilize electricity prices, which have skyrocketed this winter. They also pointed out that Germany poured over €18 billion into renewable energy subsidies in 2024 alone—coincidentally the same amount it would take to restart six nuclear plants.
But there’s a catch—Germany’s major utility companies, including E.On, RWE, and EnBW, have little interest in rejoining the nuclear sector due to financial and political risks. To bypass that roadblock, KernD suggests creating a state-owned company to handle reactivation, much like France’s EdF or Sweden’s Vattenfall.
Merz has yet to take a firm stance on the issue, though he did call for a halt to dismantling old nuclear sites. Meanwhile, Markus Söder, leader of Bavaria’s CSU, is pushing for the restart of Isar 2, one of the last plants shut down in 2023.
With Germany facing an energy crunch, the nuclear debate isn’t going away anytime soon. The question now is whether Merz will take bold action or keep the status quo.
