Explained | Germany to end its decades-old nuclear power era. What now?

After a decades-long dispute which had divided Germany, the country has finally decided that on Saturday (April 15), it will pull the plug on its last three nuclear power stations and there has been a range of reactions. Europe’s largest economy which is also one of its biggest emitters of carbon will, in the short term, go back to using coal.

A brief history

Germany began its commercial nuclear sector with the Kahl reactor in 1961 which was later joined by seven commercial plants in the early years and with the 1970s oil crisis it garnered public support.

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Former West Germany has long supported the anti-nuclear movement even before the German unification where hundreds of thousands of mostly young people would take to the streets. As of 20 years ago, 19 nuclear power plant units supplied up to a third of the country’s electricity.

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It was not until the 1986 Chernobyl disaster in the then-Soviet Union that some of the warnings and dangers of nuclear power were confirmed. However, various governing parties in Germany like the Christian Democrats (CDU), the Social Democratic Party (SPD), and the Free Democratic Party (FDP) have still stood firmly behind the use of nuclear power for decades now.

However, it is also worth noting that the governing SPD, Greens, and the FDP in their coalition agreement had decided to stick to former Chancellor Angela Merkel’s decision for Germany’s nuclear phase-out.

Why is this a big deal?

At midnight, Berlin would mark the six-decade programme which has witnessed some of the strongest protest movements in the continent. The smoking towers of Isar II, Emsland and Neckarwestheim II reactors will be shut as Germany will enact its plan for fully-renewable electricity generation by 2035.

The nuclear-phase out plan has been in motion since 2002 but gained momentum when Merkel was chancellor in 2011 and following the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan.

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Additionally, Germany’s strong anti-nuclear movement which still holds lingering fears from the Cold War conflict and nuclear disasters such as Chernobyl in Ukraine had pressured successive governments to end the use of a technology that critics have argued is unsafe and unsustainable.

What was the holdup?

The three plants were scheduled to be turned off by December 2022, however, due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine over a year ago, they received a brief extension. Europe’s largest economy like others was also grappling with the fallout of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and scrambled to find substitutes for Moscow’s cheap pipeline gas.

The government in Berlin, like the rest of Europe, was not sure if they would be able to power themselves through the winter. Notably, the situation in Germany was relatively stable when compared to others which can be attributed to the country’s natural gas buying spree and the firing up of old coal power plants.

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But given the uncertainty over power supply, incumbent Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced he would keep the nuclear plants going for three and a half more months, extending the initial December deadline to April 15.

Does everyone agree with this decision?

According to Deutsche Welle (DW), the shutdown also comes at the end of 22,596 days and plenty of heated debate. Many lawmakers across the political spectrum took to Twitter and expressed their views on the decision. “Goodbye nuclear power! Goodbye insecure, unclean, uneconomical energy policy!” said Scholz. While his party SPD on their official page showed an image of a collapsing nuclear power plant cooling tower.

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On the other hand, the FDP leader and Finance Minister Christian Lindner took to the microblogging platform and said he was not happy with the decision. While agreeing that renewable energy is the future he said that “in the meantime we have to secure our supply until we have sufficient capacity,” adding that if it were up to him Germany would retain the last three power plants in reserve.

Environmental groups celebrate

Environmental groups marked the day with celebrations outside the three reactors and rallies in major cities, including Berlin. Greenpeace, an environmental NGO, organised a demonstration at the Brandenburg Gate on Saturday and said, “Finally, nuclear energy belongs to history!”. Meanwhile, Munich celebrated a “nuclear exit festival” which witnessed the presence of several hundred people to mark the milestone.

What next?

Germany’s government has previously agreed that in the short term, the country would have to rely on coal and natural gas to meet its energy needs. This comes as Germany aims to be carbon neutral by 2045 and has been ramping up its electricity production from solar and wind. As of last year, the three soon-to-be dismantled plants accounted for only six per cent of the country’s energy.

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Meanwhile, several nuclear power plants will undergo the costly process of dismantling while figuring out what to do with the highly radioactive material accumulated over six decades. Germany still needs to find a permanent repository for around 1,900 highly radioactive casks of nuclear waste by 2031.

“Nuclear power supplied electricity for three generations, but its legacy remains dangerous for 30,000 generations,” said Environment Minister Steffi Lemke, as per Euronews. He added that many risks of civilian atomic facilities were unconsidered, including their becoming targets during conflicts.

(With inputs from agencies)

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