Germany decided, or rather re-decided, to close NPPs after Fukushima. Hence, operators didn't invest in maintenance, saftey upgrades, repairs or new fuel. Rathe

Germany decided, or rather re-decided, to close NPPs after Fukushima. Hence, operators didn't invest in maintenance, saftey upgrades, repairs or new fuel. Rather, they did thenminimum necessary to get them to the agreed (operators and the government agreed on dates, surprising, I know), closure date. The result: There was no way to keep German NPPs scheduled for closure running any lomger without massive, and financially uninteresting, investments and a lot of time (refits, repairs, maintenance, recertification, procurent and delivery of new fuel rods, testing, reactivation...). That coal was increased instead of renewbles was a really bad devision. One driven by a strong lobby and (mostly) conservative politians with a vested interest in coal.