Astroturfing isn’t just paid shills. It’s also useful fools parroting the same talking points, which makes it appear to be a grassroots-led initiative. It’s muddying the water, like framing the argument as renewables vs nukes instead of renewables vs oil/gas/coal as this article is talking about. Increasing solar and wind power is a good thing. Period. But every time there’s a discussion about how a country is investing in wind and solar, you nuclear bros make it about nukes vs renewables. Fossil fuels have to go. I do not endorse or support the use of fossil fuels of any kind. But nuclear energy is not a real solution, and all you are doing is derailing the conversation, which was about increasing renewable energy, which again, IS OBJECTIVELY A GOOD THING. Building NPPs take way too long and are way too expensive to save us from catastrophic climate collapse. Climate collapse is already happening. Crying about NPPs being decommissioned 30 years ago literally helps no one. It is spilled milk. It is nothing but a distraction that will prevent or delay the transition away from fossil fuels TODAY.

The nuclear plants that Germany shutdown were at end of life, with fuel rods only available from sanctioned Russia. They could not be retrofitted with other fuel rods, because nuclear technology isn’t flexible like that. These plants also had safety certs expiring, and certifying them with a new fuel rod “hack” would have been impossible.

In what way was it unreasonable for Germany to shut down EOL power plants that had no fuel source available?