Plan put in place after Fukushima disaster finally completed, but protesters argue move will only place greater emphasis on coal and
The nuclear power plant Emsland in Lingen, western Germany was among those to shut its doors on Saturday as the country tries to focus on renewables CREDIT: AFP
Germany became only the third European country to shut off its nuclear power supply on Saturday when its final three reactors were severed from the grid for good.The end of German nuclear energy, a process begun by former chancellor Angela Merkel after the Fukushima disaster in 2011, came at the same time as the country seeks to wean itself off fossil fuels and manage an energy crisis caused by the war in Ukraine.A small crowd of pro-nuclear demonstrators turned out in front of the Brandenburg Gate on Saturday to protest the end of Germany’s nuclear era.On the rain-drenched Pariser Platz, they watched a pantomime in which the sun and wind struggled to defeat men dressed as coal and gas until nuclear power came to the rescue.“Our reactors set records for energy production year after year,” said Lucan Eichhorn, one of a small number of protesters on the pro-nuclear side.“Switching them off when they could run for years longer really is the height of stupidity.”On the other side of the gate, Greenpeace activists set up a float that depicted nuclear energy as a dinosaur being slain by the sun.Johana Caro, dressed in a Greenpeace cagoule, said she had come out to celebrate the end of a “dangerous technology”.“Our reliance on nuclear stopped us investing in renewables,” she asserted.
Against a backdrop of rising energy prices and an increased reliance on coal-fired powerplants, many Germans are having second thoughts about the wisdom of shunning reliable, carbon-free power sources. Italy and Lithuania are the only other European countries to have shut down nuclear power generation.
The Fukushima nuclear disaster was a pivotal moment for Rainer Klute, whose son was studying at a Japanese university just a hundred miles from the site of the reactor when the earthquake hit.
With the health of his child potentially at stake, Mr Klute, an IT specialist, said he wanted to understand the risks of nuclear energy "as quickly and as deeply" as he could.
"By coincidence I had just been on a visit to a German reactor where we learned about the security mechanisms at the site," he told the Telegraph.
The lesson he took from the meltdown at Fukushima was that, as bad as it was, it wasn't likely to happen in Germany.
The rest of the German public reacted in a rather different manner, however.
In the days after the disaster in Japan, tens of thousands of people took to the streets to demand an immediate shutdown of Germany's nuclear energy facilities.
Under pressure, Mrs Merkel, who had previously insisted it was “nonsense" to shut down the plants, announced that Germany would leave the nuclear era behind by 2022.