Germany Gives-Up Nuclear Power
Discussion
From BBC:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-13592208
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-13592208
BBC News said:
Germany's coalition government has announced a reversal of policy that will see all the country's nuclear power plants phased out by 2022.
The decision makes Germany the biggest industrial power to announce plans to give up nuclear energy.
Environment Minister Norbert Rottgen made the announcement following late-night talks.
Chancellor Angela Merkel set up a panel to review nuclear power following the crisis at Fukushima in Japan.
There have been mass anti-nuclear protests across Germany in the wake of March's Fukushima crisis, triggered by an earthquake and tsunami.
'Sustainable energy'
Mr Rottgen said the seven oldest reactors - which were taken offline for a safety review immediately after the Japanese crisis - would never be used again. An eighth plant - the Kruemmel facility in northern Germany, which was already offline and has been plagued by technical problems, would also be shut down for good.
Six others would go offline by 2021 at the latest and the three newest by 2022, he said.
Mr Rottgen said: "It's definite. The latest end for the last three nuclear power plants is 2022. There will be no clause for revision."
Mr Rottgen said a tax on spent fuel rods, expected to raise 2.3bn euros (£1.9bn) a year from this year, would remain despite the shutdown.
Mrs Merkel's centre-right Christian Democrats met their junior partners on Sunday after the ethics panel had delivered its conclusions.
Before the meeting she said: "I think we're on a good path but very, very many questions have to be considered.
"If you want to exit something, you also have to prove how the change will work and how we can enter into a durable and sustainable energy provision."
The previous German government - a coalition of the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) and the Greens - previously decided to shut down Germany's nuclear power stations by 2021.
However, last September Chancellor Angela Merkel's coalition scrapped those plans - announcing it would extend the life of the country's nuclear reactors by an average of 12 years.
Ministers said they needed to keep nuclear energy as a "bridging technology" to a greener future.
The decision to extend was unpopular in Germany even before the radioactive leaks at the Fukushima plant.
But following Fukushima, Mrs Merkel promptly scrapped her extension plan, and announced a review.
Greens boosted
Germany's nuclear industry has argued that an early shutdown would be hugely damaging to the country's industrial base.
Before March's moratorium on the older power plants, Germany relied on nuclear power for 23% of its energy.
The anti-nuclear drive boosted Germany's Green party, which took control of the Christian Democrat stronghold of Baden-Wuerttemberg, in late March.
Shaun Burnie, nuclear adviser for environmental campaign group Greenpeace International, told the BBC World Service that Germany had already invested heavily in renewable energy.
"The various studies from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change show that renewables could deliver, basically, global electricity by 2050," he said.
"Germany is going to be ahead of the game on that and it is going to make a lot of money, so the message to Germany's industrial competitors is that you can base your energy policy not on nuclear, not on coal, but on renewables."
Seems like a step backwards to me.The decision makes Germany the biggest industrial power to announce plans to give up nuclear energy.
Environment Minister Norbert Rottgen made the announcement following late-night talks.
Chancellor Angela Merkel set up a panel to review nuclear power following the crisis at Fukushima in Japan.
There have been mass anti-nuclear protests across Germany in the wake of March's Fukushima crisis, triggered by an earthquake and tsunami.
'Sustainable energy'
Mr Rottgen said the seven oldest reactors - which were taken offline for a safety review immediately after the Japanese crisis - would never be used again. An eighth plant - the Kruemmel facility in northern Germany, which was already offline and has been plagued by technical problems, would also be shut down for good.
Six others would go offline by 2021 at the latest and the three newest by 2022, he said.
Mr Rottgen said: "It's definite. The latest end for the last three nuclear power plants is 2022. There will be no clause for revision."
Mr Rottgen said a tax on spent fuel rods, expected to raise 2.3bn euros (£1.9bn) a year from this year, would remain despite the shutdown.
Mrs Merkel's centre-right Christian Democrats met their junior partners on Sunday after the ethics panel had delivered its conclusions.
Before the meeting she said: "I think we're on a good path but very, very many questions have to be considered.
"If you want to exit something, you also have to prove how the change will work and how we can enter into a durable and sustainable energy provision."
The previous German government - a coalition of the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) and the Greens - previously decided to shut down Germany's nuclear power stations by 2021.
However, last September Chancellor Angela Merkel's coalition scrapped those plans - announcing it would extend the life of the country's nuclear reactors by an average of 12 years.
Ministers said they needed to keep nuclear energy as a "bridging technology" to a greener future.
The decision to extend was unpopular in Germany even before the radioactive leaks at the Fukushima plant.
But following Fukushima, Mrs Merkel promptly scrapped her extension plan, and announced a review.
Greens boosted
Germany's nuclear industry has argued that an early shutdown would be hugely damaging to the country's industrial base.
Before March's moratorium on the older power plants, Germany relied on nuclear power for 23% of its energy.
The anti-nuclear drive boosted Germany's Green party, which took control of the Christian Democrat stronghold of Baden-Wuerttemberg, in late March.
Shaun Burnie, nuclear adviser for environmental campaign group Greenpeace International, told the BBC World Service that Germany had already invested heavily in renewable energy.
"The various studies from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change show that renewables could deliver, basically, global electricity by 2050," he said.
"Germany is going to be ahead of the game on that and it is going to make a lot of money, so the message to Germany's industrial competitors is that you can base your energy policy not on nuclear, not on coal, but on renewables."
Ah yes, Germany is renowned for its earthquakes. The lunatics have taken over the asylum.Yep, Merkel's government got through an extension on the life of all of the plants late last year. This upset the anti-nuclear crowd enough, but then Fukushima really made it high on the public agenda. CDU are no longer in power in Badem-Wurrtemberg which is a huge symbolic shift, and Merkel is running scared of losing votes.
The same greens will likely be back in a few years complaining about the number of windmills being built in their back yards, and the amount of countryside being torn up to make way for the pylons and cables needed to bring the wind energy from the north sea to the industrial south. And everyone else will be complaining about the cost of electricity, as it is definitely NOT going to be cheap to do as the government plans.
Meanwhile, Germany is happily signing off dozens of new coal-fired plants (about 25GW worth over the next 10-20 years) because they are cheap and easy to build. So the whole thing is a purely political decision with very little based in the reality of either reliable energy provision for an industrialised country, or actually reducing CO2 emissions.
The same greens will likely be back in a few years complaining about the number of windmills being built in their back yards, and the amount of countryside being torn up to make way for the pylons and cables needed to bring the wind energy from the north sea to the industrial south. And everyone else will be complaining about the cost of electricity, as it is definitely NOT going to be cheap to do as the government plans.
Meanwhile, Germany is happily signing off dozens of new coal-fired plants (about 25GW worth over the next 10-20 years) because they are cheap and easy to build. So the whole thing is a purely political decision with very little based in the reality of either reliable energy provision for an industrialised country, or actually reducing CO2 emissions.
Mad as hatters, amazed that Germany have taken this line, short of some revolutionary invention in the very near future their economy is doomed within the next 20 years, the cost of fueling the nation will sink it.
From where I am sitting it is nuclear or nothing, without it we are f
ked.
From where I am sitting it is nuclear or nothing, without it we are f
ked.Right. So a disaster which killed thousands of people, ruined towns, cities and villages and yet failed to kill anyone by destroying nuclear plants directly in the line of fire has caused the Germans to decide nuclear is too dangerous on their earthquake and tsunami too-prone soil?
There's a good use for greens and it's not in government.
There's a good use for greens and it's not in government.
There might be logic in this decision. More coal fired generation may actually end up helping to keep your Porsche running...
http://www.newenergyworldnetwork.com/renewable-ene...
http://www.newenergyworldnetwork.com/renewable-ene...
Germany don't need theirs when Poland have nuclear plants planned conveniently for 2020 that they could..........borrow.
http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/NN_Polands_nucle...
Gdansk, now wasn't that once the German city of Danzig?
http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/NN_Polands_nucle...
Gdansk, now wasn't that once the German city of Danzig?
I guess it'll give the Micronesians someone else to sue.
http://www.pennenergy.com/index/power/display/2001...
http://www.pennenergy.com/index/power/display/2001...
Someone else said it...Merkel is running scared. What the Greens dont realise is that they arent exactly in a strong position either. The German public, the real tax paying wealthy ones are already unhappy at being billed for the EU bailout, weathering the Recession and Depression and now they will be hit for greater demands on their money over an issue that wasnt even on their horizon a year ago. Somebody is going to receive an almighty political kicking for this and I suspect it may well be a combination of Merkel and the Greens.
Unless their renewables package comes with the construction of some *large* hydro schemes (to store the energy produced by wind farms when there was no demand), then I can't see a renewable-only solution ever working.
This is the problem with wind. It produces energy when it wants to, not when demand exists. Hence the current solution of using nuclear to provide the base load and gas to ramp things up a bit for the peaks.
I suppose Germany's answer will be to export the wind energy to neighbouring countries when there's no demand and to buy in energy for peak coverage. Which will work, for a while. Until, that is, all the other countries build their wind farms.
This is all my understanding. I could be wrong...
This is the problem with wind. It produces energy when it wants to, not when demand exists. Hence the current solution of using nuclear to provide the base load and gas to ramp things up a bit for the peaks.
I suppose Germany's answer will be to export the wind energy to neighbouring countries when there's no demand and to buy in energy for peak coverage. Which will work, for a while. Until, that is, all the other countries build their wind farms.
This is all my understanding. I could be wrong...
bus pass said:
chim said:
From where I am sitting it is nuclear or nothing, without it we are fked.
Ze Germans or us? Both I'd say.ked.We need more nuclear power. Any plans to scrap the building of them is very, very short sighted IMO.
This just confirms that energy idiocy isn't confined to GB politicians. Not that we needed such confirmation.
Some contextual cross-content from the climate politics thread:
Russia, Japan and Canada told the G8 they would not join a second round of carbon cuts under the Kyoto Protocol at United Nations talks this year and the US reiterated it would remain outside the treaty, European diplomats have said.
Agence France-Press, 29 May 2011
The EU currently has a target to cut emissions by 20 per cent cut from 1990 levels by 2020, but some countries, led by the UK, want to raise that to 30 per cent.
Financial Times, 17 May 2011
Russia, Japan and Canada told the G8 they would not join a second round of carbon cuts under the Kyoto Protocol at United Nations talks this year and the US reiterated it would remain outside the treaty, European diplomats have said.
Agence France-Press, 29 May 2011
The EU currently has a target to cut emissions by 20 per cent cut from 1990 levels by 2020, but some countries, led by the UK, want to raise that to 30 per cent.
Financial Times, 17 May 2011
Mr Happy said:
BBC News said:
Mr Rottgen said a tax on spent fuel rods, expected to raise 2.3bn euros (£1.9bn) a year from this year, would remain despite the shutdown.
Oh I can see that going down like the Hindenberg! (pun intended)
Have a look at Onkalo.
bus pass said:
Uhura fighter said:
Mr Happy said:
BBC News said:
Mr Rottgen said a tax on spent fuel rods, expected to raise 2.3bn euros (£1.9bn) a year from this year, would remain despite the shutdown.
Oh I can see that going down like the Hindenberg! (pun intended)Have a look at Onkalo.
t. Think Exxon Valdez and other industrial incidents. I believe that he was working on a method of cleaning up and perminantly storing waste, whether it be chemical, medical or nuclear, very, very safely.I don't wish to go into any further details as I don't know how things have progressed with this over the last 12-14 months since I last spoke to him.
How do you build something to withstand the next ice age in sixty thousand years?
Into Eternity trailer
Into Eternity - Superb film (IMO)
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