Calls by Switzerland’s Green Party for the early shutdown of Switzerland’s nuclear power plants are “nonsense” and “completely irresponsible”, the Swiss Nuclear Forum industry group said.

The group’s president, Hans-Ulrich Bigler, said: “In the current context of the energy crisis and climate change, people who want to shut down our nuclear power plants without absolute necessity are completely irresponsible.

The forum noted that last year, Switzerland’s four remaining nuclear power plants – Beznau-1, Beznau-2, Gösgen, Leibstadt – supplied 37% of the country’s electricity with availability of over 90%. After considerable investment, the 1,233-MW Leibstadt boiling water reactor unit set a production record in 2022. The 1,010 MW Gösgen pressurised water reactor unit operated safely and without incident for 322 days. Electricity production was interrupted only by a scheduled annual outage.

“The fact that the Greens still see nuclear power plants as a problem for the security of our supply is simply absurd,” Bigler said. “The real risk would be to base our energy supply largely on weather-dependent production. Diversity – namely combining all clean technologies rather than pitting them against each other – improves safety.”