Currently, eight of the country’s reactors are already closed – one, the Krümmel in North Germany, has been closed since 2009 following a fire in 2007 and a short-circuit just days after it was repaired in 2009. The seven other reactors were suspended right after the Japanese fallout in March, after a report found them to be skirting the line of safety. Prior to these eight reactors closing, 23 per cent of Germany’s energy came from these 17 plants.
Germany’s coalition government has said that of the nine remaining reactors, six will finish work by 2021, and the three others – Germany’s newest-built – will be closed in 2022.
So what will Germany do post-2022? Build more wind farms most likely, adding to the farms that are already on the North Sea side of the country. They will also aim to cut down on electricity usage by 10 per cent in the next decade, by building more efficient buildings and machines.
Despite Germany’s honorable intentions, its near-neighbour Sweden has stickybeaked over a few fences and called their decision “unrealistic”, with the Swedish environment minister Andreas Carlgren adding his concern that “to focus so strongly on which year nuclear power is to be wound down raises the risk that the key issue is missed: how are we to meet the dual challenge of both cutting nuclear power dependency and of climate emissions.” [BBC and Reuters and The Local]
ozoneocean
Tuesday, May 31, 2011 at 2:58 AMHooray for Germany for be both courageous and safety minded! Hopefully the fact that such a world industrial power has taken this stance will start to embarrass other nuclear users. It seems Sweden is already feeling the pressure.
The danger is though that Germany may turn back to coal since they still have a lot of reserves.
Ed Luck
Tuesday, May 31, 2011 at 4:16 PMPuh-lease. So you’re saying Nuclear power is unsafe, and will NEVER be safe, is that it?
Bollocks.
Milton
Tuesday, May 31, 2011 at 9:12 PMAnd the alternative is what? Nuclear is clean and much safer then scare tactics would make you think. It’s far better especially for Australia with many reserves of uranium.
Don’t even think of saying renewable power sources because they’re far too underdeveloped and inefficient and you know it.
Uranium is definitely a viable path to help provide more time for renewable to be developed to far more maintainable standards
Cabbage
Tuesday, May 31, 2011 at 8:36 AMMorons. Just because one reactor screws up after its useby date they want to move away from our best current choice in power generation? All they need to do is ship the waste to somewhere like, the moon, and make sure to not extend the life of the reactor past its useby and it would be fine.
Dave Lord
Tuesday, May 31, 2011 at 12:02 PMCorrection…. more than one! Remember Chernobyl? Three Mile Island? And those are only the ones we know about.
Maybe you should look here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_civilian_nuclear_accidents
Ed Luck
Tuesday, May 31, 2011 at 4:17 PMMaybe you should find a list of accidents at fossil-fuel power stations and see how many people have been killed at those too, eh?
Gabriel
Tuesday, May 31, 2011 at 9:41 AMI can’t imagine any country being able to cut down on electricity usage. I think we will use more and more. Windfarms won’t cut it. They will continue to use at least the newest ones
Christian
Tuesday, May 31, 2011 at 12:02 PMstupid move, really
Edward
Tuesday, May 31, 2011 at 1:54 PMThis is the stupidest decision the German Government has ever made.
Germany already supplies 23% of its power through nuclear energy, so they will not be able to maintain their energy requirement without relying more heavily on fossil fuels. So much for climate change. On a side note, read below on wind power.
The number 1 reactor in Fukishima was about 40 years old and scheduled to go out of commission in 2011. Modern Nuclear Reactors are built much safer than these relics.
A car built in the 1960′s crashes and people die inside. Let’s ban cars and go back to riding horses.
Nuclear power is actually the safest form of power generation available. See links below.
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21028063.300-wind-and-wave-farms-could-affect-earths-energy-balance.html
http://notrickszone.com/2011/03/14/even-candles-kill-many-more-than-nuclear-power/
ORLY
Tuesday, May 31, 2011 at 2:58 PMI would have thought the decision to invade Russia in the winter was their stupidest.
chris
Tuesday, May 31, 2011 at 10:19 PMYep cant see this happening.. haha, but if they are serious i am interested in finding out what thier alternative power source will be.. fusion perhaps? lol
Mogwai
Wednesday, June 1, 2011 at 7:06 PMGood on them. Sick of hearing crap about how sustainable power can’t provide enough power yada yada.
The Germans are probably smart enough to figure it all out and laugh in our faces while we all play catch up because all we did was stand around waiting to convince the general population that nuclear power is safe enough to go mainstream while more and more old technology reactors start going pop.
Will the cost to retrofit or build new ‘safe’ reactors be better and cheaper than just inventing and building non waste producing technology in the first place. I think Germany has made its mind up on this topic and i suspect Japan may do so shortly too.