Nuclear power in Germany

The Grafenrheinfeld Nuclear Power Plant in Germany. All German nuclear plants are scheduled to be shut down by 2022.

Nuclear power in Germany produces about one-quarter of the country's electricity but has become a political issue with all plants scheduled to be closed. German nuclear power began with research reactors in the 1950s and 1960 and the first commercial plant coming online in 1969. It has been high on the political agenda in recent decades, with continuing debates about whether the technology should be phased out. The topic received renewed attention at the start of 2007 due to the political impact of the Russia-Belarus energy dispute and in 2011 after the Fukushima I nuclear accidents.

On 30 May 2011, Germany formally announced plans to abandon nuclear energy completely within 11 years. Seven plants that had been temporarily shut down for testing in March 2011, and an eighth offline for technical problems, would remain closed permanently. The remaining nine plants would be shut down by 2022. The announcement was first made by Norbert Röttgen, head of the Federal Ministry for Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety, after late-night talks.

Chancellor Angela Merkel said the accelerated phase-out of plants previously scheduled to go offline as late as 2036 would give Germany a competitive advantage in the renewable energy era, stating, "As the first big industrialized nation, we can achieve such a transformation toward efficient and renewable energies, with all the opportunities that brings for exports, developing new technologies and jobs." Merkel also pointed to Japan's "helplessness" — despite being an industrialized, technologically advanced nation — in the face of its nuclear disaster.

History

Nuclear power plants in Germany

Germany, like most countries in the world, generates the majority of its electricity from traditional fossil fuel sources. Nuclear power was developing as a major source of generation until political pressure stopped its growth in the mid-1980s. Since then no new generating stations have been constructed.

At the time of the Japanese disaster, Germany was getting just under a quarter of their electricity from nuclear power, which is about the same percentage as the United States.

West Germany

As in many industrialized countries, nuclear power in Germany was first developed in the late 1950s. Only a few experimental reactors went online before 1960, and an experimental nuclear power station in Kahl am Main opened in 1960. All of the German nuclear power plants that opened between 1960 and 1970 had a power output of less than 1,000 MW and have now all closed down. The first commercial nuclear power plant started operating in 1969. Obrigheim, the first grid station, operated until 1989. (Neckarwestheim).

A closed nuclear fuel cycle was planned, starting with mining operations in the Saarland and the Schwarzwald; uranium ore concentration, fuel rod filling production in Hanau; and reprocessing of the spent fuel in the never-built nuclear fuel reprocessing plant at Wackersdorf. The radioactive waste was intended to be stored in a deep geological repository, as part of the Gorleben long-term storage project.

East Germany

The Rheinsberg Nuclear Power Plant was the first (mostly experimental) nuclear power plant in East Germany. It was of low power and operated from 1966 until 1990. The second to go into commercial operation, the Greifswald Nuclear Power Plant, was planned to house eight of the Russian 440 MW VVER-440 reactors. The first four went online between 1973 and 1979. The other four were cancelled during different stages of their build-up. In 1990, during the German reunification, all nuclear power plants were closed due to the differences in safety standards. The Stendal Nuclear Power Plant, which was under construction at the time, was cancelled.

Accidents

Main article: Nuclear accidents by country

See also: Lists of nuclear disasters and radioactive incidents

Nuclear power accidents in Germany

Date	Location	Description	Cost (in 2006 US$)	Victims (killed/injured)
4 May 1986	Hamm-Uentrop, Germany	Operator actions to dislodge damaged fuel rod at Experimental High Temperature Gas Reactor release excessive radiation to 4 km2 (1.5 sq mi) surrounding the facility	267,000,000	0/0
17 December 1987	Hesse, Germany	Stop valve fails at Biblis Nuclear Power Plant and contaminates local area	13,000,000	0/0
7 December 1975	Greifswald, East Germany	Electrical error causes fire in the main trough that destroys control lines and five main coolant pumps, partly inducing meltdown	443,000,000	0/0

Operators

• E.ON Kernkraft GmbH
• Vattenfall Europe Nuclear Energy GmbH
• RWE Power AG

Politics

Eight of the seventeen operating reactors in Germany have been temporarily shut down since 14 March 2011 due to Fukushima I nuclear accidents.

See also: Anti-nuclear movement in Germany

During the chancellorship of Gerhard Schröder, the social democratic-green government had decreed Germany's final retreat from using nuclear power by 2022, but the phase-out plan was initially delayed in late 2010, when during the chancellorship of center-right Angela Merkel the coalition conservative-liberal government decreed a 12-year delay of the schedule. This delay provoked protests, including a human chain of 50,000 from Stuttgart to the nearby nuclear plant in Neckarwestheim. Anti-nuclear demonstrations on 12 March attracted 100,000 across Germany.

On 14 March 2011, in response to the renewed concern about the use of nuclear energy the Fukushima incident raised in the German public and in light of upcoming elections in three German states, Merkel declared a 3-month moratorium on the reactor lifespan extension passed in 2010. On 15 March, the German government announced that it would temporarily shut down 8 of its 17 reactors, i.e. all reactors that went online before 1981. Former proponents of nuclear energy such as Angela Merkel, Guido Westerwelle, Stefan Mappus have changed their positions, yet 71% of the population believe that to be a tactical manoeuvre related to upcoming state elections. In the largest anti-nuclear demonstration ever held in Germany, some 250,000 people protested on 26 March under the slogan "heed Fukushima - shut off all nuclear plants".

On 30 May, the German government announced a plan to shut all nuclear reactors by 2022. Environment Minister Norbert Röttgen stated of the decision, "It's definite. The latest end for the last three nuclear power plants is 2022. There will be no clause for revision."

Renewable energy to be new source of power, jobs, economic growth

Main article: Renewable energy in Germany

Germany has combined the phase-out with an initiative for renewable energy and wants to increase the efficiency of fossil power plants in an effort to reduce the reliance on coal. According to the former German Minister for the Environment Jürgen Trittin, in 2020, this would cut carbon dioxide emissions by 40 percent compared with 1990 levels. Germany has become one of the leaders in the efforts to fulfill the Kyoto protocol. Critics of the German policy have called it a mistake to abandon nuclear power, claiming the only alternative to nuclear power was coal and abandoning nuclear power was therefore contradictory to the goal of lowering CO₂ emissions.

As a result of its efforts and subsidies, Germany has become a world leader in the use of non-conventional renewable energy for electricity generation, particularly in photovoltaic and wind turbine installations. At the same time, Germany continues to rely heavily on coal power, with usage increasing to offset the phase-out of nuclear energy.

Announcing the major break with her previous position, Merkel stated on 30 May 2011, "We believe that we can show those countries who decide to abandon nuclear power — or not to start using it — how it is possible to achieve growth, creating jobs and economic prosperity while shifting the energy supply toward renewable energies". Prior to the decision, Germany's renewable energy sector already employed about 370,000.

The Germany nuclear industry has insisted that its shutdown would cause major damage to the country's industrial base. However, Shaun Bernie, a nuclear adviser for Greenpeace International, commented that "Germany is going to be ahead of the game ... and it is going to make a lot of money, so the message to Germany's industrial competitors is that you can base your energy policy not on nuclear, not on coal, but on renewables."

Safety, affordability, responsibility and independence

Merkel stated that Germany "[does not] only want to renounce nuclear energy by 2022, we also want to reduce our CO₂ emissions by 40 percent and double our share of renewable energies, from about 17 percent today to then 35 percent". The chancellor, who holds a Ph.D. in physics, noted the "helplessness" of Japan, despite being so technologically advanced, in the face of their ongoing crisis, one of the two worst nuclear disasters in history. Merkel vowed that Germany's energy policy would be safe and steady and not rely on imports, with affordable prices for both consumers and industry. Increased investment in natural gas plants would provide a backup to ensure constancy for those times when the solar, wind and hydroelectric sources did not meet demand.

See also

• Nuclear power by country
• Nuclear energy policy
• Renewable energy in Germany
• Economy of Germany
• Energy policy of the European Union
• Anti-nuclear movement in Germany
• List of power stations in Germany

External links

• German Reactor Safety Authority (GRS)
• "Germany split over green energy", BBC
• "Germany says auf Wiedersehen to nuclear power, guten Tag to renewables", Grist magazine, 12 August 2005
• The German federal ministry of environment, nature conservation and reactor safety about the phase-out