Germany has confirmed it will not extend the lifespan of its commercial nuclear plants to help cut its reliance on Russian gas, saying it needed instead to build up alternative energy sources.

In response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Europe’s largest economy late last month floated the idea of keeping nuclear plants as part of its energy mix to diversify away from Russia, which delivers most of Germany’s natural gas.

But the economy and environment ministries said on Tuesday that after looking at both short-term and mid-term scenarios, they had decided that the costs and risks of keeping nuclear facilities open outweighed limited benefits. Germany’s last three remaining nuclear plants are due to close this year.