Ten years ago, Japan’s Fukushima nuclear disaster prompted Germany to confirm a previously-made decision to phase-out nuclear power. Now, German environmental minister Svenja Schulze announced that the country is still on the same page as it doesn’t consider nuclear energy an option for low-carbon power production.
The environment ministry has published a position paper listing the steps necessary to reduce nuclear risk, including the power source’s use in other countries. The country doesn’t want its neighboring countries, like France, using nuclear power either, and insists they let German officials personally monitor nuclear power plants that remain open at borders.
Schulze stressed that it’s a “myth” that the technology could help with the climate crisis and called for investments to develop renewable energies further instead. She said:
Nuclear power is neither safe nor clean. The future is for renewable energy.
Germany’s phase-out decision, originally taken in the year 2000 and confirmed after the 2011 meltdown of the power plant in Japan, had brought peace to a social conflict that raged for decades and helped minimize a major risk at least nationally.
Nuclear power could not be in Germany’s interest when it is generated abroad either, be it in our immediate neighborhood, in the EU, or globally. Our work has not ended with the German nuclear exit.
The paper lists 12 key objectives required to reduce the nuclear risk, which fall under three main categories of action. They are:
- Completing the nuclear phase-out in Germany: Close all nuclear plants and promote final storage while accelerating the expansion of renewable energies
- Reducing nuclear risks in all of Europe by strengthening cooperation
- Increasing nuclear safety worldwide by maintaining nuclear risk competence and providing appropriate information
Schulze also points out France is deciding to extend the operational time of old nuclear reactors. Clean Energy Wire reported her viewpoint as such:
…while the “principle of energy sovereignty” would have to be respected, there are “technical and economic limits to retrofitting.” Especially plants near the German border would be “monitored very closely and critically.” The German government expected France to enable “comprehensive cross-border cooperation” on the matter.
Over half of EU states don’t use nuclear power or are considering a phase-out. Toward this, Schulze enthusiastically stated:
Together with like-minded countries in Europe, I will actively work towards more countries joining the phase-out of nuclear power.
Her Austrian and Belgian colleagues Leonore Gewessler and Tinne van der Straeten are promoting this movement with her. Together, they posted a joint message on Twitter that declared their dedication to ending nuclear power in Europe while establishing a foundation for energy systems based only on renewables.
Schulze also pointed to the problems that remain unresolved in Japan, where officials in Fukushima are still grappling with removing, storing, and processing the plant’s nuclear waste. Many former residents of the region still can’t return to their homes.
She said:
If we’ve learned something from all this, then it has to be the common goal to protect people from further devastation from nuclear power. For Germany, nuclear power’s residual risk is too significant to carry on with the technology.
There are six remaining reactors in the country, three of which will go offline this year and the other three in 2022. According to a 2019 survey, 77% of German citizens support a nuclear phase-out, and 60% support this quick finalization by the end of next year.
