Germany to close all nuclear reactors by 2022

[Capt Worley PE]

Germany's coalition government has announced a reversal of policy that will see all the country's nuclear power plants phased out by 2022.
The decision makes Germany the biggest industrial power to announce plans to give up nuclear energy.

Environment Minister Norbert Rottgen made the announcement following late-night talks.

Chancellor Angela Merkel set up a panel to review nuclear power following the crisis at Fukushima in Japan.

There have been mass anti-nuclear protests across Germany in the wake of March's Fukushima crisis, triggered by an earthquake and tsunami.

'Sustainable energy'

Mr Rottgen said the seven oldest reactors - which were taken offline for a safety review immediately after the Japanese crisis - would never be used again. An eighth plant - the Kruemmel facility in northern Germany, which was already offline and has been plagued by technical problems, would also be shut down for good.

Six others would go offline by 2021 at the latest and the three newest by 2022, he said.

More at:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-13592208

I have no idea how they will accomplish this, and I bet the politicians don't either. Germany is going to be in a real bind soon.

 

[snickerd3]

so what are they going to use for power? Thats a lot of jobs lost too!

 

[Ble_PE]

I was reading about this last night in the WSJ. It's nothing but a knee-jerk reaction from left-leaning politicians that gives no thought to how they are going to power the manufacturing industry that makes them a pretty major world player.

 

[Flyer_PE]

Interesting move. I wonder who the politicians are going to throw under the bus when when the price of electricity goes through the roof or they have rolling blackouts. Those are the only two options unless they start burning a sh!t-load of coal.

 

[Supe]

Look out kids, Supe's going to Berlin!

 

[Capt Worley PE]

Interesting move. I wonder who the politicians are going to throw under the bus when when the price of electricity goes through the roof or they have rolling blackouts. Those are the only two options unless they start burning a sh!t-load of coal.

I believe they already pay the highest electricity costs in the EU, about twice as much as France (the people with all those nasty reactors). They've already become a major energy importer after they shut down the 7 reactors built like the Fukishima units.

 

[Master slacker]

What a freakin' joke. Lefties at their best. I can only assume they'll run the country off of unicorn farts and candy canes.

 

[Supe]

They'll need a LOT of farts for wind turbines to make up the difference...

 

[Ble_PE]

Well, with the sour kraut, bratwursts, and beer they shouldn't have a problem with that.

 

[roadwreck]

I wish the USA had a plentiful supply of unicorn farts and candy canes to tap into for energy.

 

[Master slacker]

You haven't seen the latest energy policy, have you?

 

[PsychoNumber1]

maybe we'll see further advancements in other renewable energy sources by then. it sounded like there was another solar breakthrough on the horizon a little while back. sure seems like a waste to get rid of the nukes though.

 

[Supe]

it sounded like there was another solar breakthrough on the horizon a little while back.

Yeah... not going to happen.

There are three options for power right now - coal, nuclear, and gas, and the third can't do it on it's own. Trying to use anything else as a primary source is a pipe dream, pure and simple.

 

[cableguy]

You know, I can't recall the last time a major earthquake, hurricane, or tsunami hit Germany. Now, their leaders did get a little uppity a couple of times "back in the day", and that didn't go so well for them, but I don't see natural disasters as being one of the forces they need to worry about here.

Sounds like they're listening a mob of people... None of us is as dumb as all of us... as the Demotivator says...

 

[Capt Worley PE]

Maybe when they run out of power, they'll take a page out of their old playbook and go to Poland to get theirs.