> Gas is hard to replace ad hoc with electricity because you'd have to replace boilers in millions of homes and apartments, a multi-decade infrastructure project

The best time to start a multi-decade infrastructure project was multiple decades ago. The second best time is now.

Boilers need replacing anyways, so this could have been very gracefully over time.

I have no doubt that the German public is full of true believers. That does not exclude Soviet/Russian influence. I don’t have any solid evidence but the Soviets/Russians had several motives, means and opportunities to spread anti-nuclear influence.

Not only would a (West) Germany with abundant cheap nuclear power have energy to compete industrially, they would have the ability to enrich plutonium which might lead to the development of a home-grown nuclear strike capacity within a short range from Moscow. That is, assuming such an idea was politically possible.

All energy is fungible. Certainly the cost of switching is not free, but the time to begin doing that was decades ago.