Germany plans to shut down its last three active nuclear power plants by April 15 at the latest - Emsland, Neckarwestheim 2 and Isar 2 will then be taken off the grid in accordance with the Atomic Energy Act. Climate activists have long advocated this strategy. But to abandon nuclear power now is a big mistake.

Of course, the safety risks are well known. We all remember the nuclear disasters in Chernobyl in 1986 and Fukushima in 2011: several thousand premature deaths due to radiation, and in Chernobyl damage that still affects the food supply in Europe today. Despite renewed technology and increased safety precautions, a nuclear disaster is always within the realm of possibility, in part due to nuclear power plants (NPPs) that remain active well beyond their expiration date, which is estimated to be a maximum of 40 years, with some NPPs operating for well over 50 years. According to the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry (MPI) in Mainz, Germany, the risk of an accident is thus approximately once every 50 years. But despite all this, the potential risk of a nuclear accident is hardly comparable to the inevitable consequences of global warming, which according to the WHO has been responsible for 148,000 heat-related deaths in Europe over the past 50 years, with conditions worsening every year.

So to stop this from progressing further, nuclear power is the better choice: no CO2 is emitted in the nuclear power generation process, and despite emissions from uranium mining, fuel fabrication, and the construction of nuclear power plants, the average CO2 emissions from nuclear power rise to levels similar to wind and solar power, which are according to the Institute for Energy Economics and the Rational Use of Energy (IER), a maximum of 23, 16, and 160 grams of CO2/KWh, respectively.

So, clearly, nuclear power contributes much less to climate change than coal and gas. On top of this, shutting down nuclear power plants often means reconnecting coal- or gas-fired power plants to meet all of Germany's electricity needs. The shutdown of three nuclear power plants at the end of 2021 and the subsequent reactivation of 12 coal-fired plants increased the amount of coal-fired electricity fed into the German grid by 17 percent.

Nevertheless, Germany is planning: nuclear phase-out April 2023, coal phase-out 2038. Utterly failed prioritization.

Considering the dangers of nuclear power, its environmental damage and its finite nature, it is definitely not the green energy savior Germany is looking for, but it can bridge the gap until renewables can cover Germany's entire energy consumption, which experts say should take at least another 15 years. Until then, to give Germany a chance to reach it's climate goals, the nuclear phase-out should be postponed.