Germany Will Shut Down All Nuclear Power Plants by 2022

Environment News Service
March 30, 2011 

http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/may2011/2011-05-30-03.html

BERLIN, Germany (ENS) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel
announced Monday that her government has decided to close all
17 nuclear power plants in the country by 2022. In the wake
of Japan's Fukushima nuclear disaster, and amidst widespread
public protests against nuclear energy, Merkel said Germany
plans to replace atomic power generation with renewable
sources of energy.

"We believe that we, as a country, can be a pioneer for a new
age of renewable energy sources," Merkel said at a news
conference shortly after her center-right coalition
government drew up a timetable for the nuclear phaseout.

"We believe that we can show those countries who decide to
abandon nuclear power - or not to start using it - how it is
possible to achieve growth, creating jobs and economic
prosperity while shifting the energy supply toward renewable
energies," said Merkel.

Nuclear power currently supplies about 22 percent of
Germany's energy needs.

If the plan is approved by Parliament, Germany will become
the second major industrialized nation to abandon nuclear
power. Italy too has abandoned nuclear energy, which was
voted down in a referendum after the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.

Merkel, who holds a doctorate degree in physics, said the
decision was taken in view of Japan's ongoing nuclear crisis.

Japan and Tokyo Electric Power Co. are still struggling to
control radiation from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power
plant, damaged when the March 11 earthquake and tsunami
caused the loss of power to its nuclear fuel cooling systems.
Hydrogen gas explosions and a meltdown of the power plant's
nuclear fuel spread radiation into the atmosphere, the soil
and the Pacific Ocean.

"We are well aware of the fact that we in Germany need not
expect the sort of natural disaster that struck Japan. Our
nuclear power plants are some of the safest in the world,"
said Merkel in April. "Nevertheless, the world must now
analyze the actual risks without any foregone conclusion, and
must find new answers to new questions."

"Although Japan is a highly developed industrialized nation,
it was powerless to prevent a nuclear threat in the wake of a
natural disaster. That is the reality," Merkel said.

According to the Merkel government's plan, the country's
seven oldest reactors, which were taken offline following the
Fukushima disaster, will not be restarted. The Kruemmel
plant, which has been offline for years due to technical
problems, will not be restarted either.

The plan also calls for one of the older nuclear plants to be
kept on "standby" from 2013, in case of electricity
shortages. Another six plants will be closed by the end of
2021 and the three newest will remain operational until 2022.

Germany's four top nuclear energy firms - Eon, RWE, EnBw and
Swedish-based Vattenfall - last month prepared a lawsuit
against the German government's decision to idle seven of
Germany's 17 nuclear power stations by 2021. It expected to
be filed by RWE.

The four nuclear energy firms warned that Germany could face
widespread winter blackouts, if the government phases out
nuclear power, a finding challenged by a recent study
conducted by the nonprofit German Watch. 

On Monday, the Federation of German Industry, BDI, said the
shutdown could force Germany to build more coal and gas power
plants to stabilize the energy supply and price, leading to
more greenhouse gas emissions.

In 2000, the coalition government of the Social Democratic
Party and the Green Party announced their decision to phase
out nuclear power plants by 2020.

Last fall, Merkel announced that she would extend the life of
Germany's nuclear plants of 12 years on average. But she
revised that position in March as a result of the Fukushima
Daiichi disaster in Japan and of late March elections in two
German states accompanied by direct protest actions
throughout Germany.

Since then, there has been mounting public pressure on the
Merkel government to phase out nuclear power. On Saturday,
there were nationwide demonstrations in at least 20 cities
attended by over 100,000 to protest against nuclear energy.
In Berlin alone, over 20,000 persons demonstrated.

During the previous week, hundreds of anti-nuclear
demonstrators marched in the streets of Berlin in the pouring
rain in protest of the annual convention nuclear
technologists at the Berlin Congress Center.

Chancellor Merkel said today that her government plans to
replace nuclear energy with renewable sources of power.

She said, "We don't only hope to give up nuclear energy by
2022, but also to reduce our CO2 emissions by 40 percent and
double our share of renewable energies, from about 17 percent
today to then 35 percent."

According to government data, the German renewable energy
sector already employs some 370,000 people.

Federal Secretary of the Environment Norbert Röttgen said
today that Germany's renewable energy industry must be
subsidized to give it a stronger market and competition
orientation.

Röttgen stressed that the coalition government intends to
bring the entire country into agreement with its new nuclear
policy. "A consent is to be aimed at also in the ultimate
nuclear waste disposal question," he said.

{Tina Gerhardt in Berlin contributed to this report.}

Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 2011. All rights
reserved.

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