Germany shutters last nuclear power plants amid European energy crisis

[Kamaji]

Germany shutters last nuclear power plants amid European energy crisis

by Ryan King, Breaking Politics Reporter |
April 15, 2023

Germany finally pulled the plug on its final three nuclear power plants Saturday, amid an energy crisis ravaging Europe.

As of midnight, Germany's smoking towers of Isar 2, Neckarwestheim 2, and Emsland have been closed. They comprised roughly 4,055 megawatts or 6% of Germany's total energy generation, forcing Berlin to hunt for alternatives as energy costs remain high across much of Europe.

GERMANY TO PHASE OUT LAST THREE NUCLEAR REACTORS FOR GOOD

The use of those facilities was subject to years of internal strife and protest, and Germany ultimately agreed to quit generating power from nuclear reactions during the aftermath of Japan's 2011 Fukushima disaster.

Although there has only been one confirmed death tied to radiation from the Fukushima incident, radioactive contamination unleashed by the meltdown spooked the international community.

Germany's efforts to close its final nuclear power plants were stymied after Russia's invasion of Ukraine prompted Berlin to cut off fossil fuel imports from Russia. The move caused energy prices to skyrocket and coincided with shortages across Europe.

At one point, Germany planned to shutter the three final reactors by the end of last year, but German Chancellor Olaf Scholz extended the plants' life to mid-April amid concerns about limited energy supply.

Germany began its foray into nuclear power in 1961 when it commissioned the Kahl reactor. Nuclear energy generates large swaths of power without carbon dioxide emissions, but critics point to its radioactive waste product that can be harmful to the environment.

“The position of the German government is clear: nuclear power is not green. Nor is it sustainable,” Steffi Lemke, Germany’s federal minister for the environment and consumer protection, told CNN.

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Source:  https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/energy-environment/germany-shutters-nuclear-power-plant

[Kamaji]

Steffi Lemke is a f*cking idiot.

[DefiantMassRINO]

... good luck with that.

Massachusetts has shutdown Yankee Rowe and Pilgrim nuclear power plants without replacing the lost generation capacity with new reliable generation capacity.  Electricity prices are now more obscene in Mass.

America's energy supply is more secure when there is robust energy supply diversity.

Concentrating on any one energy type makes American more vulnerable to energy disruptions.

Have everyone forgotten the Great Blackout of 1965, the Energy Crisis-es of the 1970s, and the Northeast Blackout of 2003?

On August 14, 2003, a tree fell in Ohio causing the Northeast to lose electricity.  New England was spared only because an observant New England ISO employee, eating lunch at his desk, disconnected New England before it lost electricity.  Energy security should be by design, not by luck.

[GtHawk]

The German people are being forced into the stone age, but hey they are the ones that keep putting the socialists and greens into power so I guess they are welcoming their communist utopia.