BBC – 30 May, 2011
Germany pledges to end all nuclear power by 2022
Germany’s ruling coalition says it has agreed a date of 2022 for the shutdown of all of its nuclear power plants.
Environment Minister Norbert Rottgen made the announcement after a meeting of the ruling coalition that lasted into the early hours of Monday.
Story here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-13592208
Clearly Germany doesn’t like its industrial base.
Our goverment has gone totally mad. This is the end of the german democracy and the beginning of an eco-dictatorship. I hope that there is a place for a refugee in the USA,
Don’t forget that logically, there is no particular reason for a climate sceptic to be in favour of nuclear power. It is usually more expensive than coal-fired power and since greenhouse gases are not dangerous, why ditch coal?
Relevant, I think from Jo. Nova:
Only an Eco-dictatorship Will Save the World! Democracy be Damned!
Thanks to the Global Warming Policy Foundation we can finally See the Light!, and it shines from Germany’s green government advisers.
Get Ready. To save the world you must give up the right to vote. To cool the planet, you will forgo the right to have a say in the laws of your land. Why? There are gifted, anointed higher beings out there (who knew?) and they are smarter than the masses. They may not know what an 8-sigma-tree is, but they know how to control the weather.
Through their benevolence you and I will live in a bountiful land, where there will be no more floods or droughts, no more record hot days, or blizzard filled cold ones. Instead life will be perfect. Every asylum seeker shall find what they seek, every climate scientist will have their own suite, and thus and unto infinity, the glorious bliss of perfect weather will descend upon the poor and worthy people of all lands, starting with Germany.
The gifted elite who have the Vision have given up trying to convince or persuade the stupid throngs of doctors, geologists, engineers, lawyers, businesspeople and other heathen fools (like NASA astronauts) who “don’t understand” their control of the atmosphere. Now is the time to force the carbon legislation into being, to take action, and help those who cannot or will not think for themselves!
“*We*, the new preachers of the world, are here to tell you peasants how to live:”
This is the dark communist totalitarian megalomaniac side of Green exposed… (again)
http://joannenova.com.au/2011/05/only-an-eco-dictatorship-will-save-the-world-democracy-be-damned/
Just as Germany needed to learn the lesson of the folly of going to war against the world in 1939, now they will learn the lesson of the consequences of going to war against reality.
The anti-nuclear superstition and numinous dread of radiation of Germans is so profound and universal that no other outcome was possible, any more than war was avoidable in 1939 under the leadership of the founder of the modern green back-to-nature movement, Adolf Hitler. The country holds absurdly exaggerated views about the consequences of the Chernobyl accident in resolute defiance of reality. Attitudes to ionizing radiation are dominated by pure superstition uncontaminated with the slightest trace of actual radiobiology.
So be it. Having done my PhD in radiation biology, I have long ago given up caring about what nuclear and energy policy countries adopt – superstition is so deep that trying to bring a scientific perspective to the nuclear debate is a total waste of time.
Democracy gives a nation a choice about what nuclear policy to follow. But it does not give a choice about facing the irreversible consequences of a nation’s choice, half a century later. This will be fun to watch. I’m just about still young enough to see this all end in tears.
The dark ages begin…again. History repeating itself.
This is going to be fun to watch.
And France pledges to build some more and renovate the older ones. Glad i live in France (8 cents a kw/h including tax) rather then Germany were i presume they’ll follow Denmarks glowing example and prices will rise to more then 20 cents.
Sounds good to me!
The stupidity of this “policy” defies belief. Will the German people accept the inevitable blackouts? I think not.
The Daily Telegraph has a piece pointing out that Britain (and Europe) is “running out of wind”! http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/energy/windpower/8545306/Wind-farms-Britain-is-running-out-of-wind.html
Never thought I’d say this but does this mean that France is now the last bastion of European sensibilty?
Lost for words!!!
And in the future there will be great towers that harvest the wind! and then….and then….wooden shoes!
They will buy electricity from France.
It couldn’t possibly have anything to do with this lunatic, technologically regressive report from Schellnhuber, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Research, could it?
Wow, a candidate for Darwin awards!
“The various studies from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change show that renewables could deliver, basically, global electricity by 2050,”
^^^ Good job Germany way to trust the IPCC. They’ve proven to be masters of projections.
This should make France happy for two reasons.
(1) Always good to see Germany surrendering instead of attacking. Doesn’t happen often.
(2) With no electricity of its own, Germany will be France’s biggest customer.
Maybe France can build a new Maginot line of reactors near the German border.
Stupid decision based on groundless fear.
All German nuclear plants shut down be 2022! You see what can be achieved by feeding unicorns sauerkraut!
Actually, the Germans are building coal fired power stations. Nuclear, when including decommissioning and spent fuel storage, is more expensive than coal.
http://motorcitytimes.com/mct/2010/04/26-new-coal-power-plants-in-germany/
I think Germany will bemore competitive than ever.
There’s me thinking that the Brits are world champions at crippling their own economy with suicidal green policies. Once again, the Germans are going to overtake us.
I hope my many friends in Germany will oppose this craziness. Germany stands for engineering excellence; Germany honours its manufacturing base; Germany trains many young people in crafts and mechanical skills (unlike Britain, where the proliferation of university degrees aims to make everybody above average penpushers (in German: Trestuhlpiloten – those who spend their lives piloting three-legged stools – nice one!)). Without a secure energy supply their industry will go into steep decline.
Was going to say something like “will the last one to leave Germany please turn out the lights”, but their energy policy will spare them this effort.
Polistra says
“(2) With no electricity of its own, Germany will be France’s biggest customer. ”
No, that will be the UK.
The decision is a natural consequence of the really wretched performance by the German nuclear industry when managing the nuclear waste disposal. The work was done badly, the dump site is leaking and those responsible lied about it.
Fukushima was just the icing on the cake after that, because it showed a Chernobyl could happen even with current day reactors.
It will however be interesting to see how Germany manages its dependence on Russian natural gas in the future, because the Russians have not been shy about pricing their product at full value. That full value is now set by solar or wind power, much higher than nuclear.
Yes Joe. At least some of us knew that the circumstances were such that the core(s) had been exposed an d that the result would be at least partial meltdown.
But Joe, a death toll of something over 13,000 people due to? Well …. everything except meltdown of the core. And that compares with, how many deaths from the nuclear plant? Any advance on … none??
Of course, nuclear safety problems can never be taken lightly. And it may even turn out that the designers at Fukushima did not take sufficient measures to avoid exactly the kind of accident which has eventuated in an earthquake and tsunami prone environment.
But it remains that any damages caused by the accident are a great deal less than those caused by the natural disaster. I think the nuclear issue should be approached with all possible caution, yes; but it must be kept in perspective. It is irrational to refuse to consider new technology which makes nuclear power much safer because an older technology partially succumbed to a natural disaster.
Excellent news.
Here in Japan, Sankei Shimbun has just reported that 13% of those polled oppose nuclear power. 87% believe that giving up nuclear power is a Green Fantasy.
I’m looking forward to a prosperous retirement as yurrup’s industrial base parachutes itself to the bottom of the ocean. Cheers.