DesideriScuri
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quote:
ORIGINAL: MercTech
The German plants haven't been mothballed as they need the generating capability but the construction permits for new plants have been left in limbo.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_power_in_Germany quote:
Eight of the seventeen operating reactors in Germany were permanently shut down following Fukushima. Chancellor Angela Merkel said the nuclear power phase-out, previously scheduled to go offline as late as 2036, would give Germany a competitive advantage in the renewable energy era, ...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_power_in_Germany#Closures_and_phase-out quote:
During the chancellorship of Gerhard Schröder, the social democratic-green government had decreed Germany's final retreat from using nuclear power by 2022, but the phase-out plan was initially delayed in late 2010, when during chancellorship of center-right Angela Merkel the coalition conservative-liberal government decreed a 12-year delay of the schedule.[18] This delay provoked protests, including a human chain of 50,000 from Stuttgart to the nearby nuclear plant in Neckarwestheim.[19] Anti-nuclear demonstrations on 12 March attracted 100,000 across Germany.[20]
On 14 March 2011, in response to the renewed concern about the use of nuclear energy the Fukushima incident raised in the German public and in light of upcoming elections in three German states, Merkel declared a 3-month moratorium on the reactor lifespan extension passed in 2010.[21] On 15 March, the German government announced that it would temporarily shut down 8 of its 17 reactors, i.e. all reactors that went online before 1981.[22] Former proponents of nuclear energy such as Angela Merkel, Guido Westerwelle, and Stefan Mappus have changed their positions,[23] yet 71% of the population believe that to be a tactical manoeuvre related to upcoming state elections.[24] In the largest anti-nuclear demonstration ever held in Germany, some 250,000 people protested on 26 March under the slogan "heed Fukushima – shut off all nuclear plants".[25]
On 30 May 2011, the German government announced a plan to shut all nuclear reactors by 2022.[26] Environment Minister Norbert Röttgen stated of the decision, "It's definite. The latest end for the last three nuclear power plants is 2022. There will be no clause for revision".[4] Prior to the decision, Germany's renewable energy sector already provided 17% of Germany's electricity and employed about 370,000.[7] The decision to phase-out nuclear power has been called the swiftest change of political course since unification.[27] Only a year earlier Angela Merkel's government overturned a decade-old decision to close all nuclear plants by 2022.[27]
Physicist Amory Lovins has said: "Chancellor Merkel was so shocked by Fukushima that she turned Germany’s energy focus from nuclear (of which she closed 41% and will close the rest within a decade) to efficiency and renewables. That’s supported by three-fourths of Germans and opposed by no political party".[28]
Merkel stated that Germany "[does not] only want to renounce nuclear energy by 2022, we also want to reduce our CO2 emissions by 40 percent and double our share of renewable energies, from about 17 percent today to then 35 percent". The chancellor noted the "helplessness" of Japan to manage the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster. Merkel asserted that Germany's energy policy would be safe, reliable, and independent from imports, with affordable prices for both consumers and industry. Increased investment in natural gas plants would provide a backup to ensure consistency for those times when the solar, wind and hydroelectric sources did not meet demand.[7]
At the time of the Japanese Fukushima disaster, Germany was getting just under a quarter of its electricity from nuclear power.[7] After the Fukushima disaster, the following eight German nuclear power reactors were declared permanently shut down on 6 August 2011: Biblis A and B, Brunsbuettel, Isar 1, Kruemmel, Neckarwestheim 1, Philippsburg 1 and Unterweser.[29]
Some German manufacturers and energy companies have criticized the phase-out plans, warning that Germany could face blackouts.[30] However, this did not happen.[31] Germany remained a net exporter of about 5 TWh of power in 2011 after exporting 17.7 TWh in 2010, according to data published by the energy utility association "AG Energiebilanzen" in February 2012.[32] Swedish Energy company Vattenfall went in front of the World Bank's International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) to seek compensation from the German government for the premature shut-down of its nuclear plants
So, Germany has shuttered 8 of 17 nuke plants. From that action, they have seen their export of power drop by, roughly, 12.7 TWh. That means they are generating, roughly, 12.5 TWh (assuming some increased usage from growth) less then before.
Generating less power with about the same GHG emissions doesn't really look like it's going swimmingly there.
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What I support:
- A Conservative interpretation of the US Constitution
- Personal Responsibility
- Help for the truly needy
- Limited Government
- Consumption Tax (non-profit charities and food exempt)
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'Anti-nuclear' Germany is Europe's biggest GHG emitter - 
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