Why's Germany choosing natural gas instead of nuclear power?

The world is witnessing a renaissance of nuclear power, which has sent uranium prices soaring in the past few years as countries buy up nuclear fuel, with nuclear power demand surging to 10-year highs in the US, while Russia works hard on expanding its nuclear power empire in developing nations in Africa.

Even Japan is returning to the carbon free power after 13 years of the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe. Overall, there are nearly 60 new nuclear power stations being constructed right now worldwide. 

However, Germany unusually decided to pause its last three nuclear power stations, and it looks like they’ll never be online again, as Germany continues to take a very surprising and strong stance against nuclear power utilization despite its support of green energy initiatives. 

And it also comes at a time of energy instability in the country following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the collapse of the gas pipelines from Russia, which hit the German economy particularly hard as it relied on Russian sources for 50% of its natural gas supplies. 

Despite all this, Germany has chosen to spend billions of euros on new natural gas stations in addition to renewable energy production, and steered away from nuclear power. 

According to a new report from the Conversation, Germany’s stance on nuclear power is a result of a long history and not a struggle against current geopolitical facts, as anti-nuclear rhetoric ramped up in Germany following World War 2 amid safety concerns and anti authority sentiment. 

Back then the focus wasn’t mostly on avoiding centralized control and enabling citizens to achieve independent sourcing of energy as much as possible amid a deep seated distrust of the government. 

Such a historic trajectory made Germany one of the most vulnerable major economies in Europe when it comes to energy sourcing, compared to France which has the most nuclear power plants per capita in the world.