Germany pledges to shut down all its nuclear plants by 2022 following Fukushima distaster

Germany is to shut its entire nuclear power network over safety fears triggered by the meltdown of the Fukushima atomic plant in Japan. Chancellor Angela Merkel announced that her country will pull the plug on nuclear energy by 2022. Germany – a country without natural gas or oil supplies and virtually no domestic coal industry left – is the biggest industrial power to give up nuclear energy. Read more: www.dailymail.co.uk... Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

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Well done to Germany I would like to see more countries following in these footsteps. It is evident that nuclear energy is not safe and the risks far outweigh the benefits.

Germany has no natural gas or oil deposits but is planning on meeting its energy consumption targets by becoming one of the greenest countries in the world.

reply to post by purplemer

While nuclear power has been a decent source of energy, its risks far outweigh its benefits.

The reason why its promoted by the establishment is because nuclear power plant construction is incredibly PROFITABLE for a select few.

Who cares about the thousands of tons of radioactive nuclear waste or the risk of catastrophic meltdown?

Wind, solar, tidal and geothermal.

The time has come for clean, limitless, renewable energy.

That's for sure a good thing, but it is known since the end of May 2011:

On 30 May 2011, Germany formally announced plans to abandon nuclear energy completely within 11 years. The plan included the immediate permanent closure of six nuclear power plants that had been temporarily shut down for testing in March 2011, and two more that have been offline a few years with technical problems. The remaining nine plants will be shut down between now and 2022

Interestingly, the nuclear power account in Germany decrease each year since 2006: 17.7% of national electricity supply in 2011, compared to 22.4% in 2010:



Source

There was 36 production units in the whole nuclear history in Germany, 19 were closed between 1971 and 2011, 8 were closed in 2011 and there are still 9 in activity that will be shut down between 2015 and 2022.

Source

Germany is an example for Europe and undoubtely France has lessons to learn....

Electricity production in France has been dominated by nuclear power ever since the early 80s with a large portion of that power exported today:



S&F for the article!

reply to post by gladtobehere


I agree it is profitable to a select few for a select amount of time too.. These plants cost a lot of money to close down and clean.. Who pays for that..

Originally posted by purplemer
reply to post by gladtobehere

 

I agree it is profitable to a select few for a select amount of time too.. These plants cost a lot of money to close down and clean.. Who pays for that..

Well, the public, of course!?
What did you think? Some poor large industry? Are you nuts?... Well, maybe not.

In fact, we will pay for the dismantling, I have no doubts.

Maybe they should stop putting money in nuclear fission reactors, and start building nuclear fusion reactors.

No meltdowns, no huge amounts of radioactivity, and it's natural, since the entire universe is made up of these kind of power plants.

Originally posted by extraterrestrialentity
Maybe they should stop putting money in nuclear fission reactors, and start building nuclear fusion reactors.

No meltdowns, no huge amounts of radioactivity, and it's natural, since the entire universe is made up of these kind of power plants.

Yeah, great - could you provide a supplier? I would like to buy one or two...


Come on, there is none existent right now. Only some hocus-pocus-awaywithyourmoney frauds. Or is there? (I mean, we ARE on ATS here, maybe someone has an entertaining new approach to fusion reactors.)

reply to post by ManFromEurope

In the case of the US...

The companies that own nuclear power stations pay for the nuclear waste to be disposed of (the government hasn't done anything with it). And they also pay to have the plants decommissioned. The cost of decommissioning is relatively small, considering the electrical power output of the reactors is large.

Also the cost of electricity in Germany is over 30 cents per kilowatt-hour, around twice that of France, and three times as high as the USA. France is the only country in the world (that does not have enormous hydro reserves) that has acceptable emissions from electricity. They built around 60 reactors in about 15 years, going from 15% nuclear to 80% nuclear, while doubling their electricity consumption. As a result they really don't use fossil fuels for electricity. A huge accomplishment and it's really what I call "getting things done".

Someone mentioned Geothermal. Gravelines Nuclear Power Station in France started construction in 1974. Six reactors. Two completed in 1980. Two completed in 1981. Two completed in 1985. To date it has produced over one petawatt-hour of electricity. Which is more electricity generated on one site than all geothermal power stations, ever have, combined. No fossil fuels were used during this.

If you want low cost, just frack a lot of natural gas, and burn a lot of coal. Renewables (and nuclear for that matter) are noncompetitive with fossil fuels, if you want to implement either you will need government intervention, which incidentally, goes against the libertarian narrative that is typical of this site.

So uhm, you people complain about costs then use Germany as an example of what should be done? Err.... that's not how the world works.

reply to post by extraterrestrialentity


I think they have now got scaled down working fusion reactors. These things need to be made functional as soon as possible. It would mean the end to the energy crisis and clean fuel too...

I guess germany is the only country smart enough to learn from other country mistakes..

If there's a nuclear disaster in France, it really doesn't matter that Germany won't have any operational nuclear power plants now will it.

Luckily, India and China realize wind and solar do not offer viable widescale power necessary for modern consumption. They're investing in clean nuclear thorium salt reactors which are superior in every way to uranium/plutonium reactors minus producing weapons grade nuclear bomb materials.

reply to post by purplemer


That's great news I am glad after what happened in Japan I think that we should find alternatives rather then use nuclear energy, we can't even dispose of the waste safely.

I for one am very glad and proud that here in little old New Zealand we are against nuclear energy and hope it stays that way. I could not feel safe if I had these plants in my back yard.

Originally posted by C0bzz
reply to post by ManFromEurope

 

..

If you want low cost, just frack a lot of natural gas, and burn a lot of coal. Renewables (and nuclear for that matter) are noncompetitive with fossil fuels, if you want to implement either you will need government intervention, which incidentally, goes against the libertarian narrative that is typical of this site.

Well, we here in Germany did it anyway, even if that hurts that libertarian agenda of this site. We like it this way. Subsidies are needed, that is right, but we are fighting some very big and rich corporate groups.
I wouldn't want it any other way. My electric power is green. I am driving a hybrid. My kids are using bicycles to get around town. *raising fists in the air* FIGHT THE POLLUTIONISTS!

This thread just got my intention, because last time I saw this in the news was in 2011... (I am German)
So I was suprised that somebody brings it up again

reply to post by purplemer


How will Germany generate electrical power?
Will solar panels do the trick?
Germany is lacking natural resources. Hitler had to run all the way to Baku.

Originally posted by aLLeKs
This thread just got my intention, because last time I saw this in the news was in 2011... (I am German)
So I was suprised that somebody brings it up again

I think they have hydroelectric dams in Germany.
Maybe that is good enough. Then they could buy their power from someone else
during peak demands?

The stupidity of human beings building so many reactors on an unpredictable planet is unbelievable. All it's gonna take is just one huge meteorite to land and we will have multiple worldwide catastrophic events.

This is not a joke, don't they even consider the consequences of their foolish actions? Atleast Germany is trying to do the right thing. ~$heopleNation

bravo for germany.

nuclear plants are a disaster waiting to happen, be it earthquake, tsunami or human foley.

reply to post by SheopleNation


Why can't we just use hydroelectric dams?
Polution free. Germany could try to make everything very energy efficient.