Germany's long goodbye to nuclear energy

In contrast with George W. Bush’s proposals on reviving the US nuclear industry, Germany has followed Sweden’s lead with a decision on phasing out nuclear power. But the German government’s deal with the country’s four big electricity generating companies bites the bullet in the gentlest way it can.

No new reactors will be approved, and each existing reactor is assumed to have a notional overall ‘lifespan’ of 32 years. The agreement is based on calculating a figure for its total electricity output during that time. Once a reactor reaches that ceiling, it must be closed down. This would appear to mean that even the newest reactors, operational since the late 1980s, will close by 2021. It’s not quite that simple, however: the more modern reactors can get their production ceilings raised, in a kind of ‘quota swap’, in return for the early closure of older reactors.

Environment minister (and leading Green) Jürgen Trittin hails the agreement as an “historic turning point”. And it’s certainly a blow to those who are trying to promote nuclear power as a way to keep carbon emissions down. Anti-nuclear protestors, however, are dismayed at the prospect of at least two more decades of nuclear power generation - and the danger of a policy u-turn if the pro-nuclear Christian Democrats return to office.

The German anti-nuclear movement’s main recent battleground has been the movement and storage of nuclear waste. Achieving some kind of compromise on that vexed issue was one of the main drivers for this latest agreement. The deal includes the planned end of nuclear fuel reprocessing, a deadline of 2005 to end international transport of German nuclear waste, and more temporary on-site waste storage pending a decision on a permanent storage site.

German environment ministry,
+49 30 285500;
www.bmu.de

29 July 2001