What is the real purpose of the German nuclear phase-out, and why is the policy shrouded in so much silence and mystery?

Thoughts about the history of nuclear policy in the Federal Republic, as the government fights to keep secret records related to the shutdown of our last nuclear plants.

The greener the country, the less emissions-intensive its electricity generation. Energy transition pioneer Germany is looking pretty brown, but at least we don’t have any more nuclear power plants like France.

All is not right with the German Green Party. Their politicians often say very weird things.

Back in December, for example, the erstwhile leftist thug and former Green Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer demanded the rearmament of Europe in response to the “imperial ideology of Putin.” Specifically, he insisted that the European Union requires its own “nuclear deterrent.” These statements were so remarkable that his interviewer could hardly believe it:

ZEIT ONLINE: You of all people are calling for that? The founding of the Green Party is closely linked to the resistance against nuclear armament in the early 1980s.

Fischer: The world has changed, and Putin relies on nuclear blackmail. I hope that America and Europe will remain united. But what will happen if Donald Trump is re-elected? In view of this scenario, too, Europe must think seriously about this question.

Needless to say, Fischer has a long history of deploring the dangers of nuclear power, and his party was of course responsible for shutting down the last German nuclear plants in April of last year. In the world of Fischer, 1) nuclear power plants are too dangerous to countenance, and 2) it was fine to demand disarmament during the Cold War, but 3) now “the world has changed” and Europe needs nuclear weapons. It is so hard to reconcile these positions with each other, that I can’t believe Fischer is arguing in good faith.

Germany is basically alone in the world in its simultaneous insistence on Net Zero goals and its phobia of nuclear energy. At the 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Dubai, over 20 countries launched a Declaration to Triple Nuclear Energy; Germany was notably missing from the 16 European signatories. Adding to the mystery, our politicians will not speak plainly about the purpose of phasing out nuclear power beyond vague references to its grave risks, and policy-making in this area is shrouded in silence and secrecy. A lot of conspiracy theories are possible here.