Posted on 11/14/2003 11:54:08 AM PST by jpl
STADE, Germany (Reuters) - Germany switched off the first of its 19 nuclear power stations on Friday, launching what it calls the world's fastest withdrawal from atomic energy but a policy that may still be reversed if the opposition takes power.
Germany's center-left government struck a deal with industry in 2000 to close all nuclear power plants by about 2025, the Greens making a phase-out a condition for forming a coalition with Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's Social Democrats in 1998.
However, it is still unclear if Germany can meet the deadline and how it will replace atomic power, which provides a third of its electricity, while also meeting commitments to cap its emissions of greenhouse gases produced by fossil fuels.
With little fanfare inside the control room, the Stade plant, Germany's second oldest, ceased operations on Friday morning with the simple pressing of two buttons.
"All rods are engaged. We are now out," said shift leader Bernd Schroeder as the reactor near Hamburg shut off.
Greens Environment Minister Juergen Trittin said Friday's closure showed nuclear power had no future in Germany.
"No country is pulling out as quickly as Germany. Up until 2020 one nuclear power plant will be closed on average every year in Germany," he said in a speech.
The Greens held a party in Berlin to celebrate, but operator E.ON said its 32-year-old reactor would have closed anyway on purely economic grounds without government pressure.
Opposition parties have threatened to reverse the withdrawal. Within government, Trittin is at odds with SPD Economy Minister Wolfgang Clement over how much to promote renewable energy as coal subsidies are phased out as Germany seeks alternatives to make up the nuclear power shortfall.
EUROPEAN LEADER
Like Germany, Belgium and Sweden have also announced nuclear phase-out plans. Sweden closed one reactor but postponed further closures after protests from energy-intensive industry.
France, which relies on nuclear power for 80 percent of its electricity, and Britain are keeping their options open to build new nuclear plants to replace aging ones.
Finland, the only country in western Europe expanding its atomic energy production, is soon to start building its fifth nuclear reactor.
"There's little sign of Europe following Germany. If anything it's going more in the opposite direction," said Berthold Hannes, analyst at consultancy A.T. Kearney.
"Germany's conservatives could also reverse the decision if they came to power. I don't think there will be any new nuclear plants, but the present ones could have their lives extended from 32 years to, say 50 years, or even 60 years as in the United States," he added.
Germany's VDEW electricity association urged the government to extend the lives of nuclear power plants, saying it would help the country keep to greenhouse gas limits. It called Stade's shutdown a routine closure, not an ecological triumph.
German Friends of the Earth (news - web sites) was also not celebrating, saying some of Stade's output had been shifted to other nuclear plants.
Despite winning the pledge of an end to atomic power, anti-nuclear protesters are still a force to be reckoned with in Germany, with thousands earlier this week disrupting a shipment of nuclear waste returning to a German storage site.
The reprocessed fuel did complete its journey from France with the help of 13,000 police, but protesters secured extensive media coverage and ensured the nuclear industry remains a costly burden -- at least for the state which footed the policing bill.
Work on dismantling the 672-megawatt Stade nuclear reactor is due to begin in 2005, once its fuel has been removed.
Oh, sure. Much better to be sending billions of Deutshe-dollars to the gulf so they can filter down to the Madrassa schools.
I had hoped that Atomic energy would be our springboard to fusion energy, but it looks as though the darker science fiction scenarios are going to come true first.
Plucky little Finland. They fought the Russians in the Winter and won. The Germans, OTOH, are the Luddites of Europe. The old Nazi's didn't die, their grand kids just became "Green".
So do I. But the "Greens" are fixated on the nuclear waste problem. It's hard to reason with them that once fusion is accomplished on a moderate scale, fusion will resolve the nuclear waste problem. But reason has nothing to do with a green energy policy. Only the politics of the ignorant and emotional, i.e. the "Left".
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