In late March, German Environment Minister Steffi Lemke of the Green Party asserted that: "The risks of nuclear energy are ultimately uncontrollable; that is why phasing out nuclear makes our country safer and avoids more nuclear waste."
Germany is about to close all its nuclear plants. Photo: DPA
Last year, the German government was once again embroiled in a dispute over nuclear energy. In a coalition deal between the ruling SPD, the Greens and the FDP, the parties agreed to stick to Germany's nuclear phase-out plan, which Merkel approved in 2011. The last nuclear power plants are to be closed by the end of 2022.
But the Ukraine conflict changed everything, as Russian gas supplies to Germany were cut off and the government feared energy shortages. Chancellor Olaf Scholz eventually decided to extend the power plants' operating hours until April 15, 2023.
The dispute lasted for decades
Few disputes have polarized people, especially in the former West Germany, as much as the dispute over nuclear power. On June 17, 1961, a German nuclear power plant supplied electricity to the grid for the first time at Kahl in Bavaria.
After 22,596 days and much heated debate, the last three operating nuclear power plants will finally shut down on April 15.
In total, 19 nuclear power plants once provided a third of the country's electricity. In the 1970s and 1980s in West Germany, before German reunification, opposition to nuclear power brought hundreds of thousands of young people into the streets.
Then in 1986, the Chernobyl disaster in the Soviet Union served as a warning about the dangers of nuclear power. But the ruling parties have since been staunch supporters of nuclear power for decades.
Other European countries have been quick to phase out nuclear power. Sweden was the first to do so, ending nuclear power shortly after Chernobyl, as was Italy, which also decided to close its last two nuclear power plants after the disaster. In Sweden, the phase-out was reversed in 1996. Today, the country’s six nuclear power plants generate about 30 percent of the country’s electricity.
Other European countries, such as the Netherlands and Poland, plan to expand their nuclear power systems, while Belgium is postponing its phased phase-out plan. With 57 reactors, France is Europe's leading nuclear power producer and has no plans to phase out any plants.
Nuclear removal process
In 2002, Germany’s then-environment minister Jürgen Trittin, also of the Green Party, approved the country’s first plan to phase out nuclear power. Although the plan was put on hold for years afterward, the devastating 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan was the catalyst that led the government to decide to phase out all nuclear reactors.
But KernD, an association representing nuclear technology interests in Germany, says ending nuclear power is not a good idea, given the recent energy crisis.
“In addition, given climate policy and the very unfavorable developments in electricity generation last year, closing three nuclear power plants that are operating with low greenhouse gas emissions would not be good for the environment,” a KernD spokesperson said.
According to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), there are currently 422 nuclear reactors operating worldwide , with an average lifespan of about 31 years.
But a recent IAEA report said there is no sign of a nuclear renaissance: Nuclear power generation peaked at 17.5% in 1996 and fell below 10% in 2021, its lowest level in four decades.
Quoc Thien (according to DW)
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