Nuclear power in Germany - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Nuclear power in Germany accounted for 23% of national electricity consumption, before the permanent shutdown of 8 plants in March 2011. German nuclear power began with research reactors in the 1950s and 1960s with the first commercial plant coming online in 1969. It has been high on the political agenda in recent decades, with continuing debates about when the technology should be phased out. The topic received renewed attention at the start of 2007 due to the political impact of the Russia-Belarus energy dispute

Russia-Belarus energy dispute

The Russia–Belarus energy dispute began when Russian state-owned gas supplier Gazprom demanded an increase in gas prices paid by Belarus, a country which has been closely allied with Moscow and forms a loose union state with Russia...

and in 2011 after the Fukushima I nuclear accidents.

On 30 May 2011, Germany formally announced plans to abandon nuclear energy completely within 11 years. The plan includes the immediate permanent closure of six nuclear power plants that had been temporarily shut down for testing in March 2011, and two more that have been offline a few years with technical problems. The remaining nine plants will be shut down between now and 2022. The announcement was first made by Norbert Röttgen, head of the Federal Ministry for Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety, after late-night talks.

Chancellor

Chancellor of Germany

The Chancellor of Germany is, under the German 1949 constitution, the head of government of Germany...

Angela Merkel

Angela Dorothea Merkel is the current Chancellor of Germany . Merkel, elected to the Bundestag from Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, has been the chairwoman of the Christian Democratic Union since 2000, and chairwoman of the CDU-CSU parliamentary coalition from 2002 to 2005.From 2005 to 2009 she led a...

said the phase-out of plants, previously scheduled to go offline as late as 2036, would give Germany a competitive advantage in the renewable energy era, stating, "As the first big industrialized nation, we can achieve such a transformation toward efficient and renewable energies, with all the opportunities that brings for exports, developing new technologies and jobs". Merkel also pointed to Japan's "helplessness" – despite being an industrialized, technologically advanced nation – in the face of its nuclear disaster. Some German manufacturers and energy companies have criticized the plans, warning that Germany could face blackouts.

History

At the time of the Japanese disaster

Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster

The is a series of equipment failures, nuclear meltdowns, and releases of radioactive materials at the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant, following the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami on 11 March 2011. The plant comprises six separate boiling water reactors originally designed by General Electric ,...

, Germany was getting just under a quarter of its electricity from nuclear power, which is about the same percentage as the United States.

West Germany

As in many industrialised countries, nuclear power in Germany was first developed in the late 1950s. Only a few experimental reactors went online before 1960, and an experimental nuclear power station

Kahl Nuclear Power Plant

The Kahl plant was the first nuclear power plant ever to be built in Germany. It was located in Karlstein am Main and was an experimental boiling water reactor. It was built by General Electric and supplied by Siemens. At the end of 2008, the demolition works had been finished....

in Kahl am Main

Kahl am Main

Kahl am Main is a community in the Aschaffenburg district in the Regierungsbezirk of Lower Franconia in Bavaria, Germany.- Location :...

opened in 1960. All of the German nuclear power plants that opened between 1960 and 1970 had a power output of less than 1,000 MW and have now all closed down. The first commercial nuclear power plant started operating in 1969. Obrigheim

Obrigheim Nuclear Power Plant

The shut down Nuclear power station Obrigheim lies in Obrigheim in Neckar-Odenwald-Kreis . It operated one pressurized water reactor unit.-History:-Planning:...

, the first grid station, operated until 2005. (Neckarwestheim

Neckarwestheim Nuclear Power Plant

Neckarwestheim Nuclear Power Station is a nuclear power plant in Neckarwestheim, Germany. It is sometimes abbreviated GKN . It is operated by EnBW Kernkraft GmbH.-GKN 1:...

.)

A closed nuclear fuel cycle was planned, starting with mining operations in the Saarland

Saarland

Saarland is one of the sixteen states of Germany. The capital is Saarbrücken. It has an area of 2570 km² and 1,045,000 inhabitants. In both area and population, it is the smallest state in Germany other than the city-states...

and the Schwarzwald; uranium ore concentration, fuel rod filling production in Hanau

Hanau

Hanau is a town in the Main-Kinzig-Kreis, in Hesse, Germany. It is located 25 km east of Frankfurt am Main. Its station is a major railway junction.- Geography :...

; and reprocessing of the spent fuel in the never-built nuclear fuel reprocessing plant

Nuclear reprocessing

Nuclear reprocessing technology was developed to chemically separate and recover fissionable plutonium from irradiated nuclear fuel. Reprocessing serves multiple purposes, whose relative importance has changed over time. Originally reprocessing was used solely to extract plutonium for producing...

at Wackersdorf

Wackersdorf

Wackersdorf is a municipality in the district of Schwandorf in Bavaria, Germany.-See also:*Anti-nuclear movement in Germany*Armin Weiss*Hildegard Breiner...

. The radioactive waste was intended to be stored in a deep geological repository

Deep geological repository

A deep geological repository is a nuclear waste repository excavated deep within a stable geologic environment...

, as part of the Gorleben

Gorleben

Gorleben is a small municipality in the Gartow region of the Lüchow-Dannenberg district in the far north-east of Lower Saxony, Germany, a region also known as the Wendland....

long-term storage project.

East Germany

The Rheinsberg Nuclear Power Plant

Rheinsberg Nuclear Power Plant

Rheinsberg Nuclear Power Station was the second nuclear reactor in East Germany after the Rossendorf Research Reactor, and the first nuclear power reactor in East Germany. It was built close to the city of Rheinsberg on the Stechlinsee...

was the first (mostly experimental) nuclear power plant in East Germany. It was of low power and operated from 1966 until 1990. The second to be commissioned, the Greifswald Nuclear Power Plant

Greifswald Nuclear Power Plant

The Nuclear power station Greifswald , also known as nuclear power station Lubmin, was the largest nuclear power station in East Germany before closure shortly after the German reunification. The plants were of the VVER-440/V-230 type, which was the first generation of Soviet Union designed plants...

, was planned to house eight of the Russian 440 MW VVER-440

VVER

The VVER, or WWER, is a series of pressurised water reactors originally developed by the Soviet Union, and now Russia, by OKB Gidropress. Power output ranges from 440 MWe to 1200 MWe with the latest Russian development of the design...

reactors. The first four went online between 1973 and 1979. The other four were cancelled during different stages of their build-up. In 1990, during the German reunification

German reunification

German reunification was the process in 1990 in which the German Democratic Republic joined the Federal Republic of Germany , and when Berlin reunited into a single city, as provided by its then Grundgesetz constitution Article 23. The start of this process is commonly referred by Germans as die...

, all nuclear power plants were closed due to the differences in safety standards. The Stendal Nuclear Power Plant

Stendal Nuclear Power Plant

The Nuclear power station Stendal was a nuclear power station under construction in East Germany, near the city Arneburg, Stendal in Bezirk Magdeburg, today Saxony-Anhalt....

, which was under construction at the time, was cancelled.

Accidents

**Nuclear power accidents in Germany**
Date	Location	Description	Cost (in 2006 US$)
4 May 1986	Hamm-Uentrop Hamm Hamm is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia , Germany. It is located in the northeastern part of the Ruhr area. As of December 2003 its population was 180,849. The city is situated between the A1 motorway and A2 motorway... , Germany	Operator actions to dislodge damaged fuel rod at Experimental High Temperature Gas Reactor THTR-300 The THTR-300 was a thorium high-temperature nuclear reactor rated at 300 MW electric . The German state of North Rhine Westphalia, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and Hochtemperatur-Kernkraftwerk GmbH financed the THTR-300’s construction. Operations started on the plant in Hamm-Uentrop,... release excessive radiation to 4 km² (1.5 sq mi) surrounding the facility	267,000,000
17 December 1987	Hesse Hesse Hesse or Hessia is both a cultural region of Germany and the name of an individual German state.* The cultural region of Hesse includes both the State of Hesse and the area known as Rhenish Hesse in the neighbouring Rhineland-Palatinate state... , Germany	Stop valve fails at Biblis Nuclear Power Plant Biblis Nuclear Power Plant The Biblis Nuclear Power Plant is in the South Hessian municipality of Biblis and consists of two units: unit A with a gross output of 1200 megawatts and unit B with a gross output of 1300 megawatts. Both units are pressurized water reactors... and contaminates local area	13,000,000
7 December 1975	Greifswald, East Germany Greifswald Greifswald , officially, the University and Hanseatic City of Greifswald is a town in northeastern Germany. It is situated in the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, at an equal distance of about from Germany's two largest cities, Berlin and Hamburg. The town borders the Baltic Sea, and is crossed...	Electrical error causes fire in the main trough that destroys control lines and five main coolant pumps, almost inducing meltdown	443,000,000

Operators

E.ON Kernkraft GmbH
E.ON Kernkraft GmbH
E.ON Kernkraft GmbH is a subsidiary of E.ON and operates six nuclear power plants in Germany, employing about 2600 workers. It is located in Tresckowstraße 5, 30457 Hannover...
Vattenfall Europe Nuclear Energy GmbH
Vattenfall Europe Nuclear Energy GmbH
Vattenfall Europe Nuclear Energy GmbH has ownership in three nuclear power plants in Germany. It is located in Überseering 12, 22297 Hamburg.* Brunsbüttel Nuclear Power Plant , taken out of service in 2007.* Krümmel Nuclear Power Plant , reactor not in service since 4 July...
RWE Power AG
RWE Power AG
RWE Power AG is a subsidiary of RWE AG. It operates several power plants in Germany.- Nuclear Power Plants :* Gundremmingen Nuclear Power Plant * Biblis Nuclear Power Plant* Emsland Nuclear Power Plant...
EnBW Energie Baden-Wuerttemberg AG

Politics

During the chancellorship of Gerhard Schröder

Gerhard Schröder

Gerhard Fritz Kurt Schröder is a German politician, and was Chancellor of Germany from 1998 to 2005. A member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany , he led a coalition government of the SPD and the Greens. Before becoming a full-time politician, he was a lawyer, and before becoming Chancellor...

, the social democratic

Social Democratic Party of Germany

The Social Democratic Party of Germany is a social-democratic political party in Germany...

-green

Alliance '90/The Greens

Alliance '90/The Greens is a green political party in Germany, formed from the merger of the German Green Party and Alliance 90 in 1993. Its leaders are Claudia Roth and Cem Özdemir...

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 the chancellorship of center-right Angela Merkel

Angela Merkel

the coalition conservative-liberal

Free Democratic Party (Germany)

The Free Democratic Party , abbreviated to FDP, is a centre-right classical liberal political party in Germany. It is led by Philipp Rösler and currently serves as the junior coalition partner to the Union in the German federal government...

government decreed a 12-year delay of the schedule. This delay provoked protests, including a human chain

Human chain

A human chain is a form of demonstration in which people link their arms as a show of political solidarity.The number of demonstrators involved in a human chain is often disputed; the organizers of the human chain often report higher numbers than governmental authorities.Notable human chains, in...

of 50,000 from Stuttgart

Stuttgart

Stuttgart is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. The sixth-largest city in Germany, Stuttgart has a population of 600,038 while the metropolitan area has a population of 5.3 million ....

to the nearby nuclear plant in Neckarwestheim. Anti-nuclear

Anti-nuclear

The anti-nuclear movement is a social movement that opposes the use of nuclear technologies. Many direct action groups, environmental groups, and professional organisations have identified themselves with the movement at the local, national, and international level...

demonstrations on 12 March attracted 100,000 across Germany.

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

States of Germany

Germany is made up of sixteen which are partly sovereign constituent states of the Federal Republic of Germany. Land literally translates as "country", and constitutionally speaking, they are constituent countries...

, Merkel declared a 3-month moratorium on the reactor lifespan extension passed in 2010. 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. Former proponents of nuclear energy such as Angela Merkel

Angela Merkel

, Guido Westerwelle

Guido Westerwelle

Guido Westerwelle [] is a German liberal politician, who, since 28 October 2009, has been serving as the Foreign Minister in the second cabinet of Chancellor Angela Merkel, and who was Vice Chancellor of Germany from 2009 to 2011. He is the first openly gay person to hold either of those positions...

, Stefan Mappus

Stefan Mappus

Stefan Mappus is a former German politician from the Christian Democratic Union . He was Minister-President of the state of Baden-Württemberg since 2010 and chairman of the CDU Baden-Württemberg since 2009....

have changed their positions, yet 71% of the population believe that to be a tactical manoeuvre related to upcoming state

States of Germany

elections. In the largest anti-nuclear demonstration

Anti-nuclear movement in Germany

The anti-nuclear movement in Germany has a long history dating back to the early 1970s, when large demonstrations prevented the construction of a nuclear plant at Wyhl. The Whyl protests were an example of a local community challenging the nuclear industry through a strategy of direct action and...

ever held in Germany, some 250,000 people protested on 26 March under the slogan "heed Fukushima – shut off all nuclear plants".

Decision to abandon nuclear power

On 30 May 2011, the German government announced a plan to shut all nuclear reactors by 2022. 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". Prior to the decision, Germany's renewable energy sector already provided 17% of Germany's electricity and employed about 370,000. The decision to phase-out nuclear power has been called the swiftest change of political course since unification

German reunification

. Only a year earlier Angela Merkel's government overturned a decade-old decision to close all nuclear plants by 2022.

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, who holds a PhD in chemistry, noted the "helplessness" of Japan to manage the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster

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.

By turning to the Czech Republic

Czech Republic

The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....

, France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

and Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

to ensure supplies, Germany is raising the risk of outages as it leads Europe’s economic recovery. The change risks straining utility networks in at least seven countries, Bundesnetzagentur, the nation’s electricity-grid regulator, said in May 2011.  To make up the shortfall, Germany is moving power south from wind parks in the north, requiring transmission along neighboring grids run by Poland’s PSE-Operator SA and ČEPS, a. s. of the Czech Republic because its own system lacks the capacity. That leaves those grids at risk because they were built at least 30 years ago to handle domestic demand two decades before the countries joined the European power-trading system.

Germany will be a net importer of about 4 terawatt hours (TW·h) of power in 2011 after exporting 14 TW·h last year, Deutsche Bank

Deutsche Bank

Deutsche Bank AG is a global financial service company with its headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany. It employs more than 100,000 people in over 70 countries, and has a large presence in Europe, the Americas, Asia Pacific and the emerging markets...

said in a July 5, 2011 report. The German system needs about 10 billion euros ($14.3 billion) of upgrades by 2020 if the country is to stop using neighboring networks, according to the German Energy Agency (DENA), a researcher part-owned by the government. The upper house of parliament approved a bill July 8 to speed up improvements.

Renewable energy to replace nuclear

Since nuclear power generates almost a third of the electricity in Germany, many thought that the country would have to import energy as the nuclear phase-out progressed. At first, Germany was still selling more electricity than it bought, due to its renewable energy industry. Renewable energy supplied a record 20.8% of Germany’s electricity in the first half of 2011, from wind power

Wind power

Wind power is the conversion of wind energy into a useful form of energy, such as using wind turbines to make electricity, windmills for mechanical power, windpumps for water pumping or drainage, or sails to propel ships....

, solar power

Solar power

Solar energy, radiant light and heat from the sun, has been harnessed by humans since ancient times using a range of ever-evolving technologies. Solar radiation, along with secondary solar-powered resources such as wind and wave power, hydroelectricity and biomass, account for most of the available...

, biomass and hydro. Germany installed over 7,400 MW of solar in 2010 and another 7,000 MW will be added in 2011. Solar and wind capacity is expected to grow by 32% from 2012–2013. The surge in renewable energy is credited with driving down the price of electricity in Germany.

This, however already changed in the autumn, with Germany beginning to import energy from its neighbors. In certain cases, the country was actually buying electricity, generated in nuclear powerplants close to the German border.

Germany has combined the phase-out with an initiative for renewable energy

Renewable energy

Renewable energy is energy which comes from natural resources such as sunlight, wind, rain, tides, and geothermal heat, which are renewable . About 16% of global final energy consumption comes from renewables, with 10% coming from traditional biomass, which is mainly used for heating, and 3.4% from...

and wants to increase the efficiency of fossil power plants in an effort to reduce the reliance on coal. According to the former German Minister for the Environment Jürgen Trittin

Jürgen Trittin

Jürgen Trittin is a German Green politician. He was Federal Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety from 1998 to 2005 in Germany.- Life and work :Trittin was born in Bremen...

, in 2020, this would cut carbon dioxide

Carbon dioxide

Carbon dioxide is a naturally occurring chemical compound composed of two oxygen atoms covalently bonded to a single carbon atom...

emissions by 40 percent compared with 1990 levels. Germany has become one of the leaders in the efforts to fulfill the Kyoto protocol

Kyoto Protocol

The Kyoto Protocol is a protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change , aimed at fighting global warming...

. Critics of the German policy have called it a mistake to abandon nuclear power, claiming the only alternative to nuclear power was coal and abandoning nuclear power was therefore contradictory to the goal of lowering CO₂ emissions.

As a result of its efforts and subsidies, Germany has developed advanced non-conventional renewable energy for electricity generation, particularly in photovoltaic

Photovoltaics

Photovoltaics is a method of generating electrical power by converting solar radiation into direct current electricity using semiconductors that exhibit the photovoltaic effect. Photovoltaic power generation employs solar panels composed of a number of solar cells containing a photovoltaic material...

and wind turbine

Wind turbine

A wind turbine is a device that converts kinetic energy from the wind into mechanical energy. If the mechanical energy is used to produce electricity, the device may be called a wind generator or wind charger. If the mechanical energy is used to drive machinery, such as for grinding grain or...

installations. At the same time, Germany continues to rely heavily on coal power, with usage increasing to offset the phase-out of nuclear energy.

The German nuclear industry has insisted that its shutdown would cause major damage to the country's industrial base.
The cost of replacing Germany's nuclear power generation with renewable energy has been officially estimated by the German Ministry of Economics

Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology (Germany)

The Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology is a ministry of the German Federal Government since 1998...

at about €0.01/kW·h (about €55 billion for the next decade), on top of the €13 billion per year already devoted to subsidizing renewables.
However, unofficial estimates of the ministry, and of the Rhenish-Westphalian Institute for Economic Research

RWI Essen

The RWI Essen, full German name Rheinisch-Westfälisches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung e.V., is one of the leading economic research institutions in Germany...

(RWI), German Energy Agency (DENA), Federation of German Consumer Organizations (VZBV), and the government-owned development bank (KfW

KFW

KFW may refer to:*Keith Fullerton Whitman , an American musician*KfW or Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau, a German public-sector financial institution...

), put the cost several times higher, at about €250 billion ($340 B) over the next decade.

External links

German Reactor Safety Authority (GRS)
"Germany split over green energy", BBC
"Germany says auf Wiedersehen to nuclear power, guten Tag to renewables", Grist magazine, 12 August 2005
The German federal ministry of environment, nature conservation and reactor safety about the phase-out

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