Germany is withdrawing three of its last six nuclear plants – EURACTIV.com

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Germany plans to withdraw three of its last six nuclear plants on Friday (December 31), another step towards completing its withdrawal from nuclear power as it shifts its focus to renewables.

The government decided to accelerate the phase-out of nuclear power following the meltdown of Japan’s Fukushima reactor in 2011 when an earthquake and tsunami destroyed the coastal plant in the world’s worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl 25 years ago.

The Brokdorf, Grohnde and Gundremmingen C reactors, operated by utilities E.ON and RWE, will be closed Friday after three and a half decades of operation.

The last three nuclear power plants – Isar 2, Emsland and Neckarwestheim II – will be decommissioned by the end of 2022.

Phasing out energy that some consider clean and cheap is an irreversible move for Europe’s largest economy, as it faces ambitious climate goals and soaring energy prices.

“For Germany’s energy industry, the phase-out of nuclear weapons is final,” said Kirsten Andrea, president of the BDEW Energy Industry Association.

Preliminary BDEW figures showed that the six nuclear power plants contributed about 12% of Germany’s electricity production in 2021. The share of renewable energy was nearly 41%, with coal generating just under 28% and gas around 15%.

Germany aims to have renewables meet 80% of energy demand by 2030 by expanding solar and wind energy infrastructure.

The new government, which plans to step up climate protection efforts, committed to eliminating nuclear power in its coalition agreement.

Economy and Climate Protection Minister Robert Habeck said on Wednesday he did not see the weakening of the anti-nuclear consensus in Germany.

Environmental groups welcomed the move but warned that 2022 was not the true end of Germany’s nuclear age.

“We have to say that there will still be uranium enrichment plants in Germany like the ones in Gronau,” Arne Fellermann, director at environmental group Bond, told Reuters.

“There is also a research reactor in Garching that is still powered by weapons-grade uranium,” Fellermann added.

Asked about the possibility of job losses, Gonderimingen Mayor Tobias Buehler said that plant employees will be busy dismantling the reactor after the shutdown.

“This deconstruction period is certainly going to take another two or two decades,” Boehler said.

E.ON estimates total decommissioning costs at €1.1 billion per plant. In 2020, E.ON made a provision of €9.4 billion for post-nuclear operation, including dismantling, packaging and cleaning of the radioactive waste.

Decommissioning is expected to be completed by 2040.

The Japanese government on Tuesday laid out a plan to release contaminated water from the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant into the sea, angering neighboring China and South Korea.

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