Scandal over Nuclear Phase-Out in Germany: What We Know

Scandal over Nuclear Phase-Out in Germany: What We Know

a recent investigation has revealed that
the final steps of phasing out nuclear
power in Germany were partly based on
false information and it doesn’t look
like it was a mistake but a deliberate
rewriting of what was originally
accurate information the ministry denies
everything let’s have a look the news
broke a few days ago after the German
magazine Cito demanded a release of
communications from the ministry for
nuclear power and safety for the time
during which the were preparing
information for the parliament in
2022 the Germans have always been weird
about nuclear power with a very strong
anti-nuclear Lobby that was represented
in particular in the green party which
ended up in the parliament in the late
1990s the Fukushima accident in 2011
increased public pressure to phase out
nuclear power the decision to go through
with it was passed with a broad majority
in the parliament across all large
parties the last nuclear power plants
were supposed to go off the grid by the
end of 2022 but come February 2022 and
Russia invades Ukraine suddenly gas
supplies at risk at that point a lot of
people asked quite reasonably if not it
might be a good idea to keep the
remaining three nuclear power plants
running for as long as possible this
might sound easier than it is because
the phase out had been scheduled for
such such a long time safety checks
hadn’t been updated those could have
been done on short notice but a bigger
problem was that the owners hadn’t
ordered new fuel rods and the delivery
time for those is a year or so at least
that’s that fewu rods don’t burn out
suddenly from one day to the next they
just become gradually less efficient
this means you can keep nuclear power
plants running on few rods that are pass
their best years it’s just that they’ll
produce less and less power also I was
told by people who I thought knew what
they’re talking about but the parliament
decided to go through with the phase out
quoting safety concerns though industry
pressure then had them postpone the
shutdown until spring
2023 no word about ordering new fuel
rods to get the power plants back online
later in the year well the new report
explains what happened there it reveals
that the expert committee that was
tasked with advising the ministry
actually wrote that it would have been
possible to continue running the nuclear
plants that were still online for
several years and that this would have
been compatible with nuclear safety
requirements provided certain steps
would be taken and new fuel rods were
ordered this is what I had also heard
and read but someone in the ministry who
was not a member of the expert committee
then rewrote this passage so that the
final version said that postponing the
shutdown of the three still running
nuclear power plants beyond the
scheduled date of December 31st 2022 is
not compatible with safety requirements
of course the ministry is now denying
that anything weird ever happened well I
think this is pretty damning evidence
that something wasn’t going right but
it’s question questionable that it made
much of a difference because in all
fairness at that point it was already
too late for nuclear power in Germany
anyway they should have invested into
new nuclear power plants 10 years
earlier rather than taking the existing
ones of the grid the most interesting
part is maybe how many people in Germany
are upset about this it really shows how
much the public attitude to nuclear
power has changed it used to be that
Environmental organizations argued that
phasing out nuclear power was to force
the expansion of solar and wind but of
course if they had wanted clean energy
they should have faced out coal not
nuclear though to be fair it worked to
some extent if you look at the
electricity sources in Germany today in
case this looks impressive this graph
shows the instored capacity not the
electricity that we actually get a lot
of installed cap capacity for solar
doesn’t deliver if you look at the
electricity we actually get to use it’s
not quite as impressive next thing to
keep in mind is that a lot of the energy
we use doesn’t come from electricity at
all for example we pretty much all heat
with oil and gas here if you look at the
total energy mix that doesn’t look quite
as good anymore and now this big chunk
of fossil fues is supposed to go and be
replaced by what I wonder I certainly
hope that the German Parliament won’t
fall for the psychological trap in which
they can’t reverse a course of action
because that would mean admitting it
wasn’t a good course in the first place
that’s what I hope but what I expect is
that they fall into exactly this trap so
keep on dusting the solar panels guys
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A recent investigation has revealed that the final steps in phasing out nuclear power in Germany were partly based on false information. And doesn’t look like it was a mistake, but a deliberate rewriting of what was originally accurate information. The ministry denies everything. A quick summary of what we know.

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