Polls show German public support for operating nuclear reactors for longer than planned

Two separate opinion polls undertaken in Germany have both shown that the greater number of those polled want the life of the country’s three remaining nuclear power reactors to be extended, “World Nuclear News” has pointed out. The three reactors are currently scheduled to be shut down at the end of this year, for political and not technical reasons. Following the tsunami-triggered nuclear accident at Fukushima Daiichi in Japan in March 2011, the German government of then Chancellor Angela Merkel passed legislation, later that same year, to phase out all nuclear power in the country by the end of this year (2022). At that time, Germany had 14 operating nuclear power reactors, providing some 25% of the country’s electricity.