Germany pledges to end all nuclear power by 2022
Germany saw mass anti-nuclear protests in the wake of the Fukushima disaster Germany's ruling coalition says it has agreed a date of 2022 for the shutdown of all of its nuclear power plants.
Environment Minister Norbert Rottgen made the announcement after a meeting of the ruling coalition that lasted into the early hours of Monday.
Chancellor Angela Merkel had set up an ethics panel to look into nuclear power following the disaster at the Fukushima plant in Japan.
Germany saw mass anti-nuclear protests in the wake of the disaster.
'Sustainable energy'Mr Rottgen said the seven oldest reactors, which were already subject to a moratorium, and the Kruemmel nuclear power plant, would not resume.
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."
Mrs Merkel's Christian Democrats had met with its 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 Fukushima plant was crippled by the March earthquake and tsunami in Japan, causing radioactive leaks that spurred anti-nuclear protests in Germany.
Mr Rottgen said a tax on spent fuel rods, expected to raise 2.3bn euros ($3.28bn) a year from this year, would remain despite the shutdown.
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.
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Commentary
I used to be for Nuclear and even wrote 2 essays in High school supporting the idea wholeheartedly.
But in College I was challenged to research an essay very thoroughly and this strict discipline and essay that came about, using numerous referenced resources and not biased books, painted a different picture of Nuclear Power all together.
Here are the key points:
1) There is no option for Nuclear waste removal. Even storing it under ground is politically savage since no city will take it in and it costs millions to maintain.
This is also a Finite area and when full, another storage area needs to be made starting the whole political dance and folly all over again.
In America, not a single storage facility has yet to be made, even the Yucca mountain option is yet to be accepted and for good reason.
2) Nuclear Power plants are not safe. Even if you say you could make the most amazing plant in the world that would never break down on it's own, a terrorist needs only smuggle a bit of explosives to ruin the lives of the Eastern or Western United States. (Yes, the whole east or west)
But again, the first point is moot. There is no safe Nuclear reactor as has been shown in Fukishima. There are no full proof plans. There is no plant secure from Nature's wrath.
But beyond that, no plant is safe from the wrath of Humans. It would take only 1 plant and 1 group of people to destroy the lives of 100,000,000 people for the next 1,000 years.
These plants are not safe.
3) The other options are cheaper, more available, and more enticing. Since the technology boom of the 90's and 00's, we've seen hardware and manufacturing prices get slashed. This packed with investment in renewable energy has created a new market infrastructure that is making Nuclear seem less and less enticing.
Governments have also backed renewable energy products and are slowly working on the small and large scale to find a new way to power our homes.
From Dye sensitized solar cells to power small objects, to large turbines and wave currents powering large cities, and solar paneling in between, we now have a wide array of choices that are getting cheaper year by year.
4) Cost. Cost is the main reason why Nuclear Energy frankly sucks. The cost to build a reactor, EVEN with government subsidies, is ridiculous and on the order of BILLIONS of dollars. No other option out there requires such a hefty investment.
The only reason we have power plants now is with the sheer force of the government, not the hand of the invisible market.
After what happened in Fukishima, investors are done with Nuclear. They have cleaned their hands of it. It's completely going off their balance sheets.
So frankly, the one and only reason you need to not go Nuclear is COST. It's too expensive.
It's too expensive for the environment, for investors, for our children, and frankly for the good ole Green Back dollar bill.
Nuclear power is dead in its tracks. Anyone daring to take its hand now needs to understand that they will be lead off a cliff.
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