[V__]

Merz will say anything if it somehow benefits him and doesn't concern himself with facts.

> German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, admitted recently that Germany’s departure from nuclear energy was a serious strategic mistake, saying the policy has made the country’s energy transition “the most expensive in the entire world.”

Even if that were the case, nuclear had no impact on the cost of the transition.

> eliminating nuclear power — once a significant part of the electricity mix — has complicated energy planning and driven up costs.

Not investing in the gird for decades and stalling renewables for cheap Russian gas arguably was more of an impact.

> Merz argued that Germany’s rush to pivot away from nuclear energy, combined with extensive investment in renewable sources under the Energiewende policy, has made the transition unusually expensive.

Reliance on Russian gas has made everything expensive, but since his party is responsible for that, it's easier to scapegoat the departure of nuclear energy.

The only mistake was to depart from nuclear before reducing gas, since that would have reduced emissions quicker.

[sfifs]

This take misses the real un-stated strategic mistake which is what I'm pretty sure Merz actually means but can't say aloud.

Shutting down nuclear reactors means you lose a source of plutonium that can be diverted to weapons manufacturing. You also lose nuclear engineers and workers with skills and knowledge to fabricate with fissile materials which you need to manufacture those weapons.

Similarly, the reason so many countries have a civilian rocket launching program in spite of having no chance in hell in beating SpaceX economically is to have scientists and engineers who can build missiles if needed.

These are just insurance policies. Both Japan and Korea have them for instance. As recent events have shown, countries without nuclear weapons are essentially defenceless against and dependent on those with them.

[V__]

This is true, but I don't think the reason for his proclamation. It would be very unlike him.

For better or worse there is zero chance that Germany starts a nuclear weapons program. The public sentiment just won't allow that unless we are already at war, in which case it is too late. Besides that, nuclear weapons are stationed in Germany already. France and the UK are next door, so I am also not sure if it would actually benefit Germany at this point.

[luke5441]

We still have a large nuclear enrichment facility (Urenco) and research reactors, so this is not what Merz means.

[pepa65]

Using cheap Russian gas made everything cheap, what caused the big crash was getting cut off from it.

[codingbot3000]

spot on