German economy minister urges nuclear power rethink as energy prices soar
Katherina Reiche’s call comes as Berlin launches investment summit to help revive Europe’s largest economy
Germany’s economy minister has called for a rethink of her country’s opposition to nuclear power, warning that its reliance on gas leaves it vulnerable to energy shocks.
Speaking as she launched a new investor conference to attract foreign capital to Europe’s largest economy, Katherina Reiche said previous governments’ decision to shut down Germany’s nuclear power plants meant there was now “no alternative” to gas to meet demand.
“We need gas to secure our supply — that is the only baseload supply I have left,” she told the FT. “Politically speaking, I have no alternative.”
Reiche’s comments reflect a deepening debate in Germany over the legacy of the nuclear phaseout, decided under former chancellor Angela Merkel in 2011 and completed under Olaf Scholz. While the policy was paired with an expansion of renewables, it has increased reliance on gas for baseload electricity.
European gas prices have soared more than 60 per cent since the start of the Iran war, thrusting the continent into its second energy price shock in less than five years.
German electricity prices for May based on futures contracts are four times as high as those of France, Europe’s largest nuclear power producer, according to energy marketplace EEX.
Reiche, a member of Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s Christian Democratic Union, urged Germany to take part, in some way, in the nuclear power revival in Europe.
Alongside France, countries including Sweden and Poland are either investing in new nuclear stations or extending reactors’ lifespans because the electricity is low carbon and reliable.
“We can decide that we are not interested. Then we stick to gas and become more dependent on one energy source. Or we can say that we are interested in technology again,” Reiche said.
Germany, “with all its engineering expertise, must be represented on international committees and if necessary, we must also be prepared to invest in Europe, and in no way oppose other countries that want to go down this path”.
She added: “Anyone standing on the sidelines simply commenting loses influence. You must be on the pitch if you want to play.”
Germany’s dependence on gas backfired after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 forced Berlin to abandon pipeline imports from Moscow. Germany had to turn to liquefied natural gas, mostly from the US, which now makes up about 10 per cent of its gas supply.
Persistently high energy costs have since weighed heavily on German industry, which also faces intensifying competition from Chinese companies at home and abroad.
In the second half of 2025, gas prices for private households were 79 per cent higher than in the same period in 2021, just before the start of the war in Ukraine, while electricity prices rose 23 per cent, according to Germany’s statistical office.
The Middle East conflict is the latest external shock complicating Berlin’s efforts to attract foreign capital and push through reforms to revive Germany’s economy.
The high oil and gas price levels were “a severe additional burden for energy-intensive industries, which were already under massive pressure”, acknowledged Reiche.
Merz, who has led a coalition between the CDU and Social Democrats for a year, has previously called the nuclear exit a “huge mistake”.
While ruling out restarting conventional nuclear power stations, his government is backing new technologies, including small modular reactors and nuclear fusion. In a gesture to France after winning elections, Merz last year promised to stop opposing nuclear power at the EU level.
The renewed focus on energy policy comes as Berlin struggles to reignite growth, despite a €1tn, decade-long public spending programme to modernise infrastructure and defence — the largest since reunification.
As part of that effort, the government will host global investors in Berlin on October 19-20 in a bid to position Germany as a “safe haven” for diversification away from the US, Reiche said. “I don’t see a flight from the dollar . . . but we see a lot of inquiries from America.”
The Invest in Germany summit will aim to secure concrete investment commitments, drawing inspiration from initiatives such as Choose France.
“I talk to a lot of investors looking for opportunities every week. They say, Germany is currently in a weak phase, but you have a strong industrial base, a well capitalised Mittelstand . . . You have a few structural issues to solve, but you are of great strategic interest to us.”