According to the German nuclear companies, the bottlenecks in gas and coal imports feared because of the Ukraine war can hardly be quickly compensated for by longer operating times of the nuclear power plants.

A spokeswoman for PreussenElektra, an Eon subsidiary, pointed out that new fuel rods would take a long time to be delivered.

"After an initial estimate, we assume that fresh fuel elements could be available in a good 1.5 years," she told the "Rheinische Post" (Tuesday).

In addition, the companies would then probably have to look for new uranium suppliers.

"In the last few years of operation of our power plants, we obtained the uranium required for the fuel elements from Kazakhstan and Russia and in small quantities from Canada."

Before a meeting of federal and state energy ministers this Tuesday, the RWE spokeswoman told the newspaper: "In the end, it is up to politicians to decide on a possible extension of the nuclear power plants' operating lives.

However, the licensing and technical hurdles for an extension would be very high.

According to the Atomic Energy Act, the Emsland, Isar 2 and Neckarwestheim 2 power plants will be the last reactors to be shut down by December 31 at the latest.

Russia supplies more than 50 percent of the natural gas consumed in Germany, and the share of Russian hard coal in power generation in Germany is around 50 percent.

In individual power plants in Germany, up to 75 percent Russian hard coal is currently being burned.

Shortly after the start of the Russian attack on Ukraine, Energy Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) declared that longer running times for coal or nuclear power plants were unsuitable for compensating for supply bottlenecks by cutting Russian deliveries.

In order to secure the energy supply, however, Bavaria's Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) had called for the lifetimes of nuclear power plants to be extended by several years.