Germany wants nuclear exit by 2022

mentalfloss

mentalfloss

Prickly Curmudgeon Smiter
Jun 28, 2010
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Germany wants nuclear exit by 2022

Mr Rottgen says the seven oldest reactors - which were taken offline for a safety review immediately after the Japanese crisis - will never be used again. An eighth plant in northern Germany, which is already offline and has been plagued by technical problems, will also be shut down for good. Six others will go offline by 2021 at the latest and the three newest by 2022.

"Our energy system has to be fundamentally changed and can be fundamentally changed," Ms Merkel told reporters on Monday.

"We want the electricity of the future to be safer and, at the same time, reliable and economical."

Germany's decision is an indication the nuclear industry is in serious decline world-wide.

Germany wants nuclear exit by 2022 - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
 
C

Cliffy

Standing Member
Nov 19, 2008
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About bloody time!

Have you noticed that all those who were promoting nuclear energy as the only true green energy of the future have become conspicuously quiet since Japan's disaster?
 
Bar Sinister

Bar Sinister

Executive Branch Member
Jan 17, 2010
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Edmonton
Cliffy said:
About bloody time!

Have you noticed that all those who were promoting nuclear energy as the only true green energy of the future have become conspicuously quiet since Japan's disaster?
Click to expand...

That is the problem with those who advocate nuclear power. The public is told that nuclear power is cheap, clean, and safe, however, continual cost overruns in many parts of the world, couple with massive government subsidies give the lie to the first claim. The problem of nuclear waste and the pollution and environmental damage caused by uranium mining give the lie to the second claim. And incidents like Fukushima give the lie to the third claim.

What advocates of nuclear power do not seem to realize is that if nuclear power is to be acceptable it must be absolutely safe. It is not enough to state that nuclear power plants are safe 99.99% of the time because the .0001% when they are not safe causes damage out of all proportion to their usefulness as first Chernobyl and now Fukushima have shown.

I find it interesting that whenever something like Chernobyl or Fukushima occurs they are spoken of as one in a million events. If they are one in a million events then why have we already had two of them (And I am not going to include Three Mile Island and the various leaks at other plants)? We don't have even close to a million nuclear power plants yet.
 
Tonington

Tonington

Hall of Fame Member
Oct 27, 2006
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The nuclear industry got it's start with weapons...uranium produces plutonium, is less plentiful than other fuels, and more dangerous. Thorium is more plentiful, less complex reactors are needed, and safer. You can't sustain a chain reaction with thorium, no possible meltdown. But, you can't produce plutonium with it.

Our CANDU reactors can be made to produce electricity with thorium, with only slight modifications. With 1/50th the material by weight compared to uranium, thorium will produce the same amount of power. So that also means far less waste material.

China announced a year and a half ago that they would be using our CANDU reactors for their thorium fueled alternatives, which they plan to have online in 2015.
 
TenPenny

TenPenny

Hall of Fame Member
Jun 9, 2004
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Location, Location
The other thing to note is that at Fukushima, the spent fuel rods are stored in pools of water up inside the reactor building. Which is cool, until the water drains out by accident.
 
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