PRODUKTION - 12.07.2022, Brandenburg, Potsdam: Dietmar Woidke (SPD), Ministerpräsident von Brandenburg, spricht während eines Interviews mit der Deutschen Presse-Agentur dpa in seinem Büro in der Staatskanzlei. Foto: Soeren Stache/dpa +++ dpa-Bildfunk +++

Brandenburg’s Prime Minister Dietmar Woidke (SPD) has shown himself open to extending the life of nuclear power plants for a short time if necessary in view of an impending gas shortage.

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“The last nuclear power plants will go offline on December 31, 2022. They currently make up about six percent of our electricity supply. If this date is extended by three or four months in order to be able to save gas, then this must be discussed seriously and without ideology,” said Woidke of the German Press Agency in Potsdam.

Against the background of the unclear disposal of nuclear waste, however, he sees no future for German nuclear energy in the medium and long term. Much of the fuel rods come from Russia, Woidke added.

The head of government had previously said to the “Märkische Allgemeine Zeitung”: “The Federal Minister of Economics must check whether short-term continued operation for several months can help in the acute emergency. We shouldn’t rule anything out in advance today.”

Recently, Woidke had strictly rejected longer maturities. Finance Minister Katrin Lange (SPD), on the other hand, had already spoken out in favor of “allowing nuclear power plants to run a little longer” in Germany. The heads of government Markus Söder (Bavaria, CSU) and Michael Kretschmer (Saxony, CDU), for example, had already taken this position.