Germany will not return to nuclear energy due to long construction time and high costs, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Monday.
'If someone decides to build a nuclear power plant now, it will be ready in 15 to 20 years, according to current construction times. By then, we should have solved all our problems in this regard,' he said during a visit to a school in the state of Baden-Württemberg.
Scholz said electricity generated by nuclear power plants is more expensive than that produced by wind, solar, or other sources.
Adding that uranium reserves are also limited, Scholz emphasized it will become evident which decision for electricity generation was more cost-effective and efficient in the next two decades.
The EU's largest economy decided to gradually phaseout nuclear energy in 2011, after the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan, but German industries and opposition parties have recently called for an extension to the runtime of the plants.
The country shut down its last atomic reactors last year, marking the end of the country's nuclear era after more than 60 years.
Reporting by Mesut Zeyrek in Cologne
Writing by Basak Erkalan
Anadolu Agency
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