Nuclear mattersGermany to scrap nuclear power by 2022
Germany yesterday announced plans to become the first major industrialized power to shut down all its nuclear plants in the wake of the disaster in Japan; phase-out due to be wrapped up by 2022; it means that the country will have to find the 22 percent of its electricity needs currently covered by nuclear reactors from another source; Monday decision is a U-turn for Chancellor Angela Merkel, and means that the current government has adopted the timetable for a nuclear phase-out set by the previous Social Democrat-Green coalition government a decade ago; it also cancels Merkel’s decision from November 2010 to extend the lifetime of Germany’s seventeen reactors by an average of twelve years, which would have kept them open until the mid-2030s
Government decision is right with the demonstrators // Source: dagensps.se
Germany on Monday announced plans which would make it the first major industrialized country to shut down all its nuclear plants in the wake of the disaster in Japan, with a phase-out due to be wrapped up by 2022.
Environment Minister Norbert Roettgen announced the decision by the centre-right coalition, which was prompted by the crisis at Japan’s Fukushima plant, in the early hours of Monday morning, describing it as “irreversible” (Spiegel quotes him as saying: “Es wird keine Revisionsklausel geben”). “After long consultations, there is now an agreement by the coalition to end nuclear energy,” he told reporters after seven hours of negotiations into the small hours at Chancellor Angela Merkel’s offices. “This decision is consistent, decisive and clear.”
The Financial Times reports that Germany has seventeen nuclear reactors on its territory, eight of which are currently off the electricity grid:
- Seven of the offline plants are the country’s oldest nuclear reactors, which the federal government shut down for three months pending a safety probe after the Japanese atomic emergency at Fukushima that began in March.
- The eighth is the Kruemmel plant, in northern Germany, which has been mothballed for years because of technical problems.
Monday’s decision made Germany the first major industrial power to announce plans to give up atomic energy entirely. It also means that the country will have to find the 22 percent of its electricity needs currently covered by nuclear reactors from another source.
Monday decision is a U-turn for Merkel, and means that the current government has adopted the timetable for a nuclear phase-out set by the previous Social Democrat-Green coalition government a decade ago. It also cancels Merkel’s decision from November 2010 to extend the lifetime of Germany’s seventeen reactors by an average of twelve years, which would have kept them open until the mid-2030s.
The Bangkok Post reports that the late-night discussions among Merkel’s fractious coalition partners saw the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP) arguing against a fixed end date for nuclear power, and to maintain two reserve reactors in case of energy shortages. FDP sources said there would be a contingency plan with one reactor but did not provide details.
The Christian Social Union, the Bavarian sister party of Merkel’s Christian Democrats, fought for an exit within 10 years.
Some coalition members had called for a built-in review clause which could have seen the decision revisited, but this was thrown out in the final round of negotiations.
Roettgen said the government had largely followed the recommendations of an “ethics panel” appointed by Merkel after the Fukushima disaster, which called for an end to nuclear power in Germany within a decade.
