Commitment kept: Germany shuts down its last three nuclear reactors on Saturday, the culmination of a long exit from atomic power that remains controversial in the context of the climate emergency. At the latest at midnight (22:00 GMT), the Isar 2 (south-east), Neckarwestheim (south-west) and Emsland (north-west) power plants will be disconnected from the electricity grid.
The German government had granted them a pardon of a few weeks, with respect to the sentence initially set for December 31, but without questioning the decision to turn the page. Europe’s largest economy will thus open a new chapter, after facing the challenge of moving away from fossil fuels while managing the gas crisis sparked by the war in Ukraine.
At the forefront of the anti-nuclear fight, the Greenpeace movement organizes a farewell celebration at the foot of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin at noon. “Finally nuclear power belongs to history! Let’s make this April 15 a memorable day”, proclaims the NGO.
Long process
The way out of nuclear power comes a long way. Following an initial decision by Berlin in the early 2000s to phase out the atom, former Chancellor Angela Merkel accelerated the process following the Fukushima disaster in 2011. Since 2003, Germany has already shut down 16 reactors. The invasion of Ukraine could have put everything in doubt. Deprived of Russian gas, the bulk of which has been cut off by Moscow, Germany has been exposed to the darkest scenarios, from the risk of shutting down its factories to running out of heat.
The winter finally passed without shortages, Russian gas was replaced by other suppliers, but the consensus on phasing out nuclear power has collapsed: in a recent poll by public broadcaster ARD, 59% of respondents believe Abandoning nuclear power in this context is not a good idea Germany must “expand the supply of energy and not restrict it further” given the risk of shortages and high prices, lamented the president of the German chambers of commerce, Peter Adrian, at the Rheinische Post newspaper.
The last three plants contributed only 6% of the energy produced in the country last year, while nuclear represented 30.8% in 1997. Meanwhile, the share of renewables in the production “mix” reached 46% in 2022, up from less than 25% ten years earlier.
Uncertainty
But in Germany, the European Union’s biggest CO2 emitter, coal still accounts for a third of electricity production, rising 8% last year to make up for the absence of Russian gas.
France, with 56 reactors, remains the most nuclear country per capita. At the European level, there are marked differences between Paris and Berlin on the role of the atom. Germany prefers to focus on its goal of covering 80% of its electricity needs with renewables by 2030, while shutting down its coal-fired power plants by 2038 at the latest.
But here uncertainty reigns. “Where and how should renewable energy be produced? Everyone in this country agrees on at least one thing: not in my house,” the Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper said on Saturday.
Source: BFM TV
