[/caption]Michael Cosgrove - The news that Germany is to close all its nuclear reactors by 2022 will certainly please anti-nuclear campaigners around the world as well as the majority of German voters, but not everyone is pleased. Inspired as it was by the events at Fukushima, the decision represents an about-turn in Germany's energy policy.
With 17 nuclear reactors supplying 127.7 Tetra Watt Hours (TwH) of power, Germany has the sixth-largest nuclear power capacity in the world and nuclear power accounts for over 20% of the country's electric power. After Fukushima however, Germany's coalition government under Angela Merkel shut down the oldest 7 reactors following protests and the country's nuclear policies were reviewed. This decision means that an 8th plant, which is currently offline due to technical problems, will be closed definitively, six other plants will go offline by 2021 and the remaining three will follow by 2022. Environment Minister Norman Roettgen, who announced the decision, said that "there will be no clause for revision."
This is a major about-turn in energy policy by Merkel, who had already reversed the decision of a previous government to close down Germany's nuclear power capacity. As recently as last September she was saying that, on the contrary, the plants' life was to be extended by an average of 12 years. But the extremely negative reaction by voters to that decision, followed as it was by Fukushima, changed her mind yet again and this announcement has seemingly sealed the fate of the German nuclear industry.
The nuclear industry is predictably hostile to the decision, claiming that it would do enormous damage to the country's industrial base. Nuclear power plant constructors and utilities saw their share prices fall and will doubtless try to have the decision reversed. Also, environmentalists are also voicing their concerns that wind power, which is widely expected to make up for some of the shortfall, will disfigure the countryside and damage wildlife. Fears are also mounting that the decision will result in Germany being forced to use more fossil fuels to produce energy.
Not all countries are happy about it either, and France has already said that it will not be following Germany's example. France's 58 reactors supply 391.7 TwH, which puts it in second place in the nuclear production stakes, behind the United States. No country however relies on nuclear energy as heavily as France, where nuclear energy accounts for 76% of all energy needs. Political personalities both within the government and in the opposition have alleged that Merkel is looking to snare Green votes for upcoming elections and the General Secretary of the ruling UMP party has declared that the government is "totally unfavorable" to the idea of phasing out nuclear power.
The French nuclear power plant production industry is also very disappointed as it fears that if the German example is followed by other countries their business will evaporate. Shares in the two biggest players, Areva and EDF, have dipped and they were already under pressure from the negative fallout from Fukushima, which was itself followed by Switzerland's decision not to renew its reactors. Both companies were widely expected to win the contract for their replacement. Areva has suspended its financial forecasts for 2012 and company president Anne Lauvergeon has said that Germany's decision has been made for "totally political" reasons.
That France has invested so heavily in nuclear power also explains why France recently, and unsuccessfully, attempted to reduce the draconian criteria that are to be used during the upcoming "stress tests" on European nuclear plants following Fukushima.
