“Nuclear power, no thanks!” The slogan once found on the bumpers of many German cars became a reality on Saturday, as the country shut down its three remaining nuclear power plants in line with a long-planned transition toward renewable energy.
The shutdown of Emsland, Neckarwestheim II and Isar II shortly before midnight had earlier in the day been cheered by anti-nuclear campaigners outside the three reactors and at rallies in Berlin and Munich. Inside the plants, employees held more fanfare celebrations to mark the occasion.
Decades of anti-nuclear protests in Germany fueled by the disasters at Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and Fukushima had put successive governments under pressure to end the use of a technology that critics argue is unsafe and unsustainable.
But Germany’s decision to stop using both, relying on nuclear power to replace planet-warming fossil fuels, along with other industrialized nations such as the United States, Japan, China, France and Britain, has raised skepticism at home and abroad. has spawned unsuccessful, as well as last-minute calls to halt the decision.
Defenders of nuclear power say fossil fuels should first be phased out as part of global efforts to curb climate change, arguing that nuclear power produces far fewer greenhouse gas emissions and is safer. Yes, if managed properly.
After the Russia-Ukraine war, Scholz was in no mood to close nuclear sites
As energy prices soared last year due to the war in Ukraine, some members of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government kept cold feet about shutting down nuclear plants as planned on December 31, 2022. in an agreement,
Scholz agreed to a one-time extension of the deadline, but insisted that the final countdown would take place on 15 April.
Nevertheless, the conservative governor of Bavaria, Markus Soeder, who supported the original deadline set in 2011 when Chancellor Angela Merkel was Germany’s leader, this week called the shutdown “an absolute wrong decision”.
“While many countries in the world are expanding nuclear power, Germany is doing the opposite,” Soeder said. “We need every possible form of energy. Otherwise, we risk high electricity prices and businesses going away.
Europe’s biggest economy could suffer a tech blow
Nuclear power advocates around the world have lambasted the German shutdown, aware that the move by Europe’s biggest economy could deal a blow to the technology they tout as a clean and reliable alternative to fossil fuels. . On Friday, dozens of scientists including James Hansen, a former NASA climate expert credited with drawing public attention to global warming in 1988, sent a letter to Scholz urging him to keep nuclear plants running.
The German government has acknowledged that, in the short term, the country will have to rely more heavily on polluting coal and natural gas to meet its energy needs, even as it plans to massively increase electricity generation from solar and wind. Took steps Germany aims to be carbon neutral by 2045.
But officials such as Environment Minister Steffi Lemke say the idea of a nuclear renaissance is a myth, citing data showing that nuclear power’s share of global electricity generation is declining.
At a recent news conference in Berlin, Lemke said that new nuclear plants in Europe, such as Hinkley Point C in Britain, have faced significant delays and cost overruns. Funds used to maintain old reactors or build new ones would be better spent on installing cheaper renewables, he said.
Energy experts such as Claudia Kaempfert of the German Institute for Economic Research in Berlin say the 5% of Germany’s electricity that currently comes from nuclear could be easily replaced without risk of blackouts.
The northwestern city of Lingen, home to the Emsland plant, plans to become a hub for hydrogen production using electricity generated from North Sea wind farms, Mayor Dieter Krone told The Associated Press in an interview this week.
The operator of the power plant, RWE, made it clear that it was committed to the shutdown. The company still operates some of Europe’s dirtiest coal-fired power plants. It recently pushed through the destruction of a village to expand the mine as part of a plan to increase short-term production before phasing out coal use by 2030.
By then the task of dismantling Germany’s many nuclear power plants would be costly. The question of what to do with the highly radioactive material accumulated in the 62 years since the country’s first reactor began operation remains unresolved. Efforts to find a final home for hundreds of containers of toxic waste have faced fierce resistance from local groups and officials, including Bavarian Governor Soeder.
“Nuclear power supplied electricity for three generations, but its legacy remains dangerous for 30,000 generations,” said Lemke, who also pointed to previously unappreciated risks such as targeting civilian nuclear facilities during conflicts .
Finding a place to safely store spent nuclear fuel is a problem that faces other countries using the technology, including the United States. Nevertheless, US Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm has said that nuclear power “will play an important role in America’s clean energy future.” This week, it welcomed Japan’s decision to restart several of its reactors.
With the debate raging again in Germany about whether the shutdown was a good idea, Gerrit Niehaus, the top official in charge of nuclear safety at the environment ministry, was asked by a reporter to summarize in one sentence what lessons should be learned from it. Needed Brief nuclear era of the country. “You need to think things through,” Niehaus said.
with inputs from AP