[PAA-Discuss] Germany Nuclear Power Plants To Be Entirely Shut Down By 2022

[slindahl at rounder-graphics.com]

Wow - a governmental body with brains and the guts to implement. We
could follow by example!  

BERLIN -- Europe's economic powerhouse,
Germany, announced plans Monday to abandon nuclear energy over the next
11 years, outlining an ambitious strategy in the wake of Japan's
Fukushima disaster to replace atomic power with renewable energy
sources. 

Chancellor Angela Merkel said she hopes the transformation to
more solar, wind and hydroelectric power serves as a roadmap for other
countries. 

"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," Merkel said. 

Merkel's
government said it will shut down all 17 nuclear power plants in Germany
- the world's fourth-largest economy and Europe's biggest - by 2022. The
government had no immediate estimate of the transition's overall cost.


The plan sets Germany apart from most of the other major
industrialized nations. Among the other Group of Eight countries, only
Italy has abandoned nuclear power, which was voted down in a referendum
after the 1986 Chernobyl disaster. 

The decision represents a
remarkable about-face for Merkel's center-right government, which only
late last year pushed through a plan to extend the life span of the
country's reactors, with the last scheduled to go offline around 2036.
But Merkel, who holds a Ph.D. in physics, said industrialized,
technologically advanced Japan's "helplessness" in the face of the
Fukushima disaster made her rethink the technology's risks. 

Phasing
out nuclear power within a decade will be a challenge, but it will be
feasible and ultimately give Germany a competitive advantage in the
renewable energy era, Merkel said. 

"As the first big industrialized
nation, we can achieve such a transformation toward efficient and
renewable energies, with all the opportunities that brings for exports,
developing new technologies and jobs," Merkel told reporters. 

The
government said the renewable energy sector already employs about
370,000 people. 

Germany's seven oldest reactors, already taken off the
grid pending safety inspections following the March catastrophe at
Japan's Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant, will remain offline
permanently, Merkel said. The plants accounted for about 40 percent of
the country's nuclear power capacity. 

At the time of the Japanese
disaster, Germany got just under a quarter of its electricity from
nuclear power, about the same share as in the U.S. 

While Germany
already was set to abandon nuclear energy eventually, the decision -
which still requires parliamentary approval - dramatically speeds up
that process. Environment Minister Norbert Roettgen said there are no
provisions that would allow a later policy reverse. 

"We don't only
want to renounce nuclear energy by 2022, we also want to reduce our CO2
emissions by 40 percent and double our share of renewable energies, from
about 17 percent today to then 35 percent," the chancellor said.


Merkel said the cornerstones of Germany's energy policy will also
include a safe and steady power supply that doesn't rely on imports, and
affordable prices for industry and consumers. The plan calls for more
investment in natural gas plants as a backup to prevent blackouts, the
chancellor said. 

Germany's initiative received a skeptical reception
abroad. 

French Prime Minister Francois Fillon, whose country relies on
nuclear power to produce 80 percent of its electricity supply, insisted
"there's no way" for the European Union to meet its emission-cutting
targets without at least some nuclear power. 

"We respect this
decision, but it doesn't cause us to change our policy," Fillon said.
France operates more than one-third of the nuclear reactors in the EU.


Sweden's Environment Minister Andreas Carlgren also criticized the
German decision, telling The Associated Press that the focus on an end
date was unfortunate and could drive up electricity prices across
Europe. 

Germany, usually a net energy exporter, has at times had to
import energy since March, with the seven old reactors shut and others
temporarily off the grid for regular maintenance. Still, the agency
overseeing its electricity grid, DENA, said Friday that the country
remains self-sufficient and that its renewable energy production
capacity this spring peaked at 28 gigawatts - or about the equivalent of
28 nuclear reactors. 

Many Germans have vehemently opposed nuclear
power since Chernobyl sent radioactivity over the country. Tens of
thousands of people took to the streets after Fukushima to urge the
government to shut all reactors quickly. 

A decade ago, a center-left
government drew up a plan to abandon the technology for good by 2021
because of its risks. But Merkel's government last year amended it to
extend the plants' lifetime by an average 12 years - a political
liability after Fukushima was hit by Japan's March 11 earthquake and
tsunami. 

Environmental groups welcomed Berlin's decision. 

"The
country is throwing its weight behind clean renewable energy to power
its manufacturing base and other countries like Britain should take
note," said Robin Oakley, Greenpeace UK's campaigns director. 

German
industry said the government must not allow the policy changes to lead
to an unstable power supply or rising electricity prices. 

Hans-Peter
Keitel, the president of the Federation of German Industries, urged the
government not to set the exit date of 2022 in stone but to be flexible
if problems arise. 

Switzerland, where nuclear power produces 40
percent of electricity, also announced last week that it plans to shut
down its reactors gradually once they reach their average life span of
50 years - which would mean taking the last plant off the grid in 2034.


Germany's decision broadly follows the conclusions of a
government-mandated commission on the ethics of nuclear power, which on
Saturday delivered recommendations on how to abolish the technology.


"Fukushima was a dramatic experience, seeing there that a
high-technology nation can't cope with such a catastrophe," Matthias
Kleiner, the commission's co-chairman, said Monday. "Nuclear power is a
technology with too many inherent risks to inflict it on us or our
children." 

___ 

Geir Moulson in Berlin, Malin Rising in Stockholm,
Colleen Barry in Milan, Jamey Keaten in Paris and Cassandra Vinograd in
London contributed reporting.
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