German nuclear power began with research reactors in the 1950s and 1960s, with the first commercial plant coming online in 1969. By 1990, nuclear power accounted for about a quarter of the electricity produced in the country. Nuclear power accounted for 13.3% of German electricity supply in 2021,[1] supplied by six power plants. Three of these were switched off at the end of 2021, and the other three ceased operations by April 2023.[2][3]
The anti-nuclear movement in Germany has a long history dating back to the early 1970s and intensified following the Chernobyl disaster in 1986.[4][5][6] After the March 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster and subsequent anti-nuclear protests, the government announced that it would close all of its nuclear power plants by 2022.[7][8] Eight of the 17 operating reactors in Germany were permanently shut down following Fukushima.
While nuclear power was gradually phased out of the German power mix, Germany increased its use of fossil fuel energy by 7% over the period 2002–2022, with a massive increase in usage of natural gas and only modest reductions of coal power and oil power.[9] By some estimates, Germany could have achieved a 73% reduction in its carbon emissions by retaining nuclear power during the period 2002–2022 and could have saved €696 billion on its energy transition.[9]
History
Early nuclear research in Germany
Prior to the takeover of Nazi Germany, German universities were the employers of some of the world's most renowned nuclear physicists, including Albert Einstein, Otto Hahn, Lise Meitner, Leo Szilard, and others. In 1938, Hahn and his colleague Fritz Straßmann conducted an experiment designed by Lise Meitner (who had already been driven into exile due to her Jewish ancestry), which led to the discovery of nuclear fission. Soon thereafter, a "race" began between the soon-to-be belligerents of World War II to find military or civilian applications of the new technology. Hampered by infighting, lack of resources, mistakes, and the suspicion of Nazi authorities against "Jewish physics", the Uranverein ("uranium club") led by Werner Heisenberg never got close to building a Uranmaschine ("uranium machine"—what the Americans called a "pile") that achieved criticality, let alone building a nuclear weapon. When the Americans took over the last German attempt at a research reactor during the war at Haigerloch in southwestern Germany, it was clear to the people involved in the Alsos Mission that Germany had fallen behind the Manhattan project to a considerable degree.[10]
First nuclear power plants
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 in Kahl am Main opened in 1960. All of the German nuclear power plants that opened between 1960 and 1970 had, as in the rest of the world at that time, a power output of less than 1,000 MW and have now all closed down. The first almost fully commercial nuclear power plant started operating in 1969; Obrigheim operated until 2005, when it was shut down by a phaseout decision of the government. The first stations with a power output of more than 1000 MW each were the two units of the Biblis Nuclear Power Plant in 1974 and 1976.
In the early 1960s, there was a proposal to build a nuclear power station in West Berlin, but the project was dropped in 1962. Another attempt to site a reactor in a major city was made in 1967, when BASF planned to build a nuclear power station on its grounds at Ludwigshafen to supply process steam. The project was withdrawn by BASF.[11]
Attempts at developing a closed fuel-cycle and breeding reactors
A closed nuclear fuel cycle was planned, starting with mining operations in the Saarland and the Schwarzwald; uranium ore concentration, fuel rod filling production in Hanau; and reprocessing of the spent fuel in the never-built nuclear fuel reprocessing plant at Wackersdorf. The radioactive waste was intended to be stored in a deep geological repository as part of the Gorleben long-term storage project. Today, there is a "ergebnisoffener" searching process over the whole country for the storage of the irradiated nuclear fuel.
In 1959, 15 municipal electric companies established the Association of Experimental Reactor GmbH (Arbeitsgemeinschaft Versuchsreaktor, AVR) to demonstrate the feasibility and viability of a gas-cooled, graphite-moderated high temperature reactor (HTGR). In the early 1960s, it started the design and construction of AVR at the Jülich Research Centre. The first criticality was attained in 1966, and the AVR was in operation for more than 22 years. Despite the fact that fuel feed and discharge system showed excellent availability, the AVR was shut down for political reasons in 1988. The AVR was designed to breed uranium-233 from thorium-232. Thorium-232 is over 100 times as abundant in the Earth's crust as uranium-235.
In 1965, before the AVR started operation, a basic design for a commercial demonstration HTGR reactor using thorium was started, the THTR-300. The HTGR, rated at 300 MWe, synchronised with the grid in 1985. Six months later, a fuel pebble became lodged in the reactor core. After repairs, it was restarted and operated in July 1986, reaching full power in September 1986. It operated until September 1988 and was shut down in September 1989.
Early opposition and reactor closures
In the early 1970s, large public demonstrations prevented the construction of a nuclear plant at Wyhl. The Wyhl protests were an example of a local community challenging the nuclear industry through a strategy of direct action and civil disobedience. The police were accused of using unnecessarily violent means. Anti-nuclear success at Wyhl inspired nuclear opposition throughout Germany and elsewhere.[12]
The ruins of the incomplete Stendal NPP reactor building
The Rheinsberg Nuclear Power Plant 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, was planned to house eight of the Russian 440MW VVER-440 reactors. The first four went online between 1973 and 1979. Greifswald 5 operated for less than a month before it was closed; the other three were cancelled during different stages of their build-up. In 1990, during the German reunification, all eastern German nuclear power plants were closed due to flaws in safety standards. The Stendal Nuclear Power Plant in East Germany was to be the largest nuclear power station in Germany. After German reunification and due to concerns about the Soviet design, construction was stopped, and the power station was never completed. In the 1990s, the three cooling towers that had been erected were demolished, and the area is an industrial estate today.
By 1992, a group of German and Swiss firms planned to proceed with the construction of the HTR-500, a design that made considerable use of the THTR-300 technology. But the politically hostile environment in the light of the Chernobyl disaster as well as technical issues with the THTR-300 halted any effort. The technology is now being pursued by the Chinese as the HTR-PM.
Anti-nuclear protest near nuclear waste disposal center at Gorleben in northern Germany on 8 November 2008. The banner reads "Only the risk is certain. Atomic power? No thanks!"
This involved a ban on the construction of new nuclear power plants. Additionally, all existing nuclear power plants were given a budget of energy generated before their shutdown would be mandated, resulting in an average projected lifespan per plant of 32 years.
The phase-out plan was initially delayed in late 2010, when during the chancellorship of centre-right Angela Merkel, the coalition conservative-liberal government decreed a 12-year delay of the schedule.[16] This delay provoked protests, including a human chain of 50,000 from Stuttgart to the nearby nuclear plant in Neckarwestheim.[17]Anti-nuclear demonstrations on 12 March attracted 100,000 people across Germany.[18]
Eight of the seventeen operating reactors in Germany were permanently shut down following the March 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster.
On 14 March 2011, in response to the renewed concern about the use of nuclear energy raised by the Fukushima incident 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.[19] German engineering-industry giant Siemens announced a complete withdrawal from the nuclear industry in 2011 as a response to the Fukushima nuclear disaster.[20][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, changed their positions.[23] In the largest anti-nuclear demonstration ever held in Germany, some 250,000 people protested on 26 March 2011, under the slogan "heed Fukushima – shut off all nuclear plants".[24]
On 30 May 2011, the German government announced a plan to shut down all nuclear reactors by 2022.[25] Prior to the decision, Germany's renewable energy sector already provided 17% of Germany's electricity and employed about 370,000 people.[26] The decision to phase out nuclear power has been called the swiftest change in political course since unification.[27]
Political writer David Frum characterised Merkel's decision as a political move to improve her approval ratings, which had sagged after the post-2008 financial crisis bailout of southern Europe by Germany.[28]
In September 2011, Siemens, which had been responsible for constructing all 17 of Germany's existing nuclear power plants, announced that it would exit the nuclear sector following the Fukushima disaster and the subsequent changes to German energy policy and would no longer build nuclear power plants anywhere in the world.[21][29]
Merkel stated that Germany "[does not] only want to renounce nuclear energy by 2022, we also want to reduce our CO2 emissions by 40percent and double our share of renewable energies, from about 17 percent today to then 35 percent".[26]
Before 2011, Germany was getting just under a quarter of its electricity from nuclear power.[26] After the Fukushima disaster, the following eight German nuclear power reactors were declared permanently shut down on 6 August 2011: BiblisA andB, Brunsbuettel, Isar1, Kruemmel, Neckarwestheim1, Philippsburg1, and Unterweser.[30]
Global status of nuclear deployment (2022):
Operating reactors, building new reactors
Operating reactors, planning new build
No reactors, building new reactors
No reactors, new in planning
Operating reactors, stable
Operating reactors, decided on phase-out
Civil nuclear power is illegal
No reactors
Gross generation of electricity by source in Germany from 1990 to 2020, which shows the shift from nuclear and coal to renewables and fossil gas
On 5 December 2016, the Federal Constitutional Court (Bundesverfassungsgericht) ruled that the nuclear plant operators affected by the accelerated phase-out of nuclear power following the Fukushima disaster are eligible for "adequate" compensation. The court found that the nuclear exit was essentially constitutional but that the utilities are entitled to damages for the "good faith" investments they made in 2010. The utilities can now sue the German government under civil law. E.ON, RWE, and Vattenfall are expected to seek a total of €19billion under separate suits.[31][32][33] Six cases were registered with courts in Germany as of 7December2016[update].[34][35]
As of March 2019, only seven nuclear plants had been left in operation and should be scheduled to be shut down and dismantled.[36] As of early 2022, three plants remained for the final year.
Renewed debate
After Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, German energy policy – which had up to that point relied on Russian imports (particularly natural gas) to a large degree[37] – was re-evaluated, including a temporary suspension of the controversial Nord Stream 2 pipeline.[38] The German minister of economy and climate, Robert Habeck, answered in an interview that he would be "open" to extending the life of the remaining three nuclear power plants but expressed skepticism as to the feasibility of and sense of such a move.[39] Several newspapers called for a re-opening of the debate on the nuclear phaseout, including the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.[40][41][42] The (former) operators of Germany's remaining three nuclear power plants as well as the three reactors that had been shut down in late 2021 (but not yet dismantled) commented that they are "open" to negotiations with the government as to extending the lifetime of those reactors or restarting those that were already shut down.[43][44] On 21 August 2022, German Economy Minister Robert Habeck said that Germany would not reverse the phase-out itself but that he was open to the idea of extending the lifespan of the Isar Nuclear Power Plant in Bavaria, subject to a stress test of Germany's electricity system.[45] German public opinion was split on the issue of phasing out nuclear power.[46]
On 5 September 2022, the Federal Government announced that two of the three remaining nuclear power plants (Neckarwestheim and Isar 2) would operate beyond 31 December 2022 until April 2023 (cycle stretch out), while the Emsland Nuclear Power Plant was to be shut down as planned.[47] However, on 10 October 2022, Scholz announced that all three would remain operating until 15 April 2023.[48]Wolfgang Kubicki, deputy leader of the Free Democrats, said in an interview with the Funke Media Group that "Germany has the safest nuclear power plants worldwide and switching them off would be 'a dramatic mistake' with painful economic and ecological consequences." Other members of the Free Democratic Party have called for the nuclear power plants to be at least maintained as a precautionary measure in case they are needed in the future for power generation.[49]
In April 2024, there was a controversy related to the decommissioning of nuclear power plants in Germany.[50][51] German magazine Cicero claimed that German Economy Minister Robert Habeck had misled the public in 2022 and ignored the advice of experts who said nuclear facilities were still safe to operate.[52] By early 2025 the journalists had used court orders to gain access to internal documents, which allowed them, in conjunction with the findings of an investigative committee, to reconstruct how the highest officials in Habeck´s ministry, Patrick Graichen and Stefan Tidow, had supressed experts who advocated for keeping the nuclear power plants and only forwarded statements which argued against nuclear power.[53]
Nuclear power plants take years to dismantle, and contaminated sites have to be cleared and declared free of radiation.[36] One estimate puts the cost of dismantling Germany's nuclear reactor sites at €18 billion, not counting the cost of radioactive waste disposal.[57]
Spent nuclear fuel is stockpiled in temporary locations.[58] In Germany, heavily contaminated spent fuel rods are stored in Castor containers on several temporary sites around the country.[57]
Germany is preparing the former iron ore mine Schacht Konrad in Salzgitter as a national facility for the permanent disposal of low- to medium-grade radioactive waste materials.[57][36]
On 19 October 2016, the German cabinet (Bundeskabinett) finalised a deal with nuclear power plant operators E.ON, EnBW, RWE, and Vattenfall over long-term nuclear waste disposal. Under the agreement, the four operators are freed of responsibility for storing radioactive waste; that responsibility is instead transferred to the state. In return, the operators will pay a total of €17.4billion into a state-administered fund to finance the interim and final storage of nuclear waste. They will also pay an additional "risk surcharge" of €6.2billion (35.5%) to cover the eventuality that costs exceed current projections and that the interest accrued by the fund is lower than expected. The operators will be responsible for decommissioning and deconstructing their own nuclear power plants, as well as preparing their radioactive waste for final storage.
Critics, including the German Renewable Energy Federation and BUND, claim the total of €23.6billion would prove insufficient and that future taxpayers will carry the risk.[59]
Transmutation
While the official policy of Germany is to dispose of spent fuel in a deep geological repository inside Germany's borders,[60] Germany is also involved in research into the nuclear transmutation of high-level waste (primarily actinides, which account for most of the long-term radiotoxicity of spent nuclear fuel). An important research project underway in Belgium is MYRRHA, which relies on German suppliers for the particle accelerator, which is in a sense the "heart" of every accelerator-driven system and whose reliability is the key issue to be solved before such systems can be commercialised.[61]
A near-core meltdown at Greifswald Nuclear Power Plant: Three out of six cooling water pumps were switched off for a failed test. A fourth pump broke down due to a loss of electric power, and control of the reactor was lost. 10 fuel elements were slightly damaged before recovery.
The stop valve failed for a moment at Biblis Nuclear Power Plant; contamination of the local area in the reactor building.
0
13
Phase-out
Germany decided to phase out nuclear power in 2002. After multiple changes to its Atomgesetz (nuclear energy law) in 2010 and 2011, the phase-out was completed in 2023. The country has combined the phase-out with an initiative for renewable energy and wants to increase the efficiency of fossil power plants in an effort to reduce its reliance on coal. According to the former German Minister for the Environment, Jürgen Trittin, in 2020, this would cut carbon dioxide emissions by 40percent compared with 1990levels. Germany has become one of the leaders in the efforts to fulfil the Kyoto protocol. 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.[64]
The German nuclear industry has insisted that its shutdown would cause major damage to the country's industrial base. In 2012, member firms of the Verband der Industriellen Energie- und Kraftwirtschaft (VIK) reported power failures of several seconds duration, combined with a rise in frequency fluctuations. These were reportedly caused by network overloads due to the shutdown of nuclear power plants and an increase in wind power generation.[65] VIK also fears that industrial control units will be damaged by outages.
The cost of replacing Germany's nuclear power generation with renewable energy has been officially estimated by the German Ministry of Economics at about €0.01/kWh (about €55billion for the next decade[when?]), on top of the €13billion per year already devoted to subsidizing renewables. However, unofficial estimates of the ministry and of the Rhenish-Westphalian Institute for Economic Research (RWI), the German Energy Agency (DENA), the Federation of German Consumer Organisations (VZBV), and the government-owned development bank (KfW) put the cost several times higher, at about €250billion ($340billion) over the next decade.[when?][66][67]
Some German manufacturers and energy companies have criticised the phase-out plans, warning that Germany could face blackouts.[68] While this did not happen,[69] there has been an increase in voltage fluctuations, which has damaged industrial facilities and caused them to install voltage regulators.[70] A 2020 study found that lost nuclear electricity production has been replaced primarily by coal-fired production and net electricity imports. The social cost of this shift from nuclear to coal is approximately €3 to €8 billion annually, mostly from the eleven hundred additional deaths associated with exposure to the local air pollution emitted when burning fossil fuels.[71] 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.[72][73]
In March 2013, the administrative court for the German state of Hesse ruled that a three-month closure imposed by the government on RWE's Biblis A and B reactors as an immediate response to the Fukushima Daiichi accident was illegal.[74] The state ministry of the environment acted illegally in March 2011, when an order was issued for the immediate closure of the Biblis units. RWE complied with the decree by shutting Biblis-A immediately; however, as the plants were in compliance with the relevant safety requirements, the German government had no legal grounds for shutting them. The court ruled that the closure notice was illegal because RWE had not been given sufficient opportunity to respond to the order.
In 2022, Vox commented that "Germany’s decision to restart old coal plants rather than extend the life of its nuclear power facilities reflects a failure of environmental priorities",[75] and NPR wrote, "Facing an energy crisis, Germans stock up on candles."[76] The last three nuclear power plants in Germany—Emsland, Isar II and Neckarwestheim II—were shut down on 15 April 2023.[77][78] In April 2023, several critics of nuclear power plant shutdowns argued that the switching off of nuclear power plants deprives Germany of a source of low-emission power and forces the country to continue using fossil fuels that contribute to climate change.[49][79]
The pebble-bed reactor (PBR) is a design for a graphite-moderated, gas-cooled nuclear reactor. It is a type of very-high-temperature reactor (VHTR), one of the six classes of nuclear reactors in the Generation IV initiative.
Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, Incorporated is a Japanese electric utility holding company servicing Japan's Kantō region, Yamanashi Prefecture, and the eastern portion of Shizuoka Prefecture. This area includes Tokyo. Its headquarters are located in Uchisaiwaicho, Chiyoda, Tokyo, and international branch offices exist in Washington, D.C., and London. It is a founding member of strategic consortiums related to energy innovation and research; such as JINED, INCJ and MAI.
The Diablo Canyon Power Plant is a nuclear power plant near Avila Beach in San Luis Obispo County, California. Following the permanent shutdown of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station in 2013, Diablo Canyon is now the only operational nuclear plant in California, as well as the state's largest single power station. It was the subject of controversy and protests during its construction, with nearly two thousand civil disobedience arrests in a two-week period in 1981.
The Biblis Nuclear Power Plant is a nuclear power plant in the German municipality of Biblis that 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. The operator of this power plant is the German RWE Power AG, an electrical utility based in Essen. Unit A began operation on 16 July 1974, and entered commercial service on 25 August 1974; unit B reached criticality on 25 March 1976. Both units now are shut down indefinitely for political reasons (Atomausstieg).
A nuclear power phase-out is the discontinuation of usage of nuclear power for energy production. Often initiated because of concerns about nuclear power, phase-outs usually include shutting down nuclear power plants and looking towards fossil fuels and renewable energy. Three nuclear accidents have influenced the discontinuation of nuclear power: the 1979 Three Mile Island partial nuclear meltdown in the United States, the 1986 Chernobyl disaster in the USSR, and the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan.
Nuclear energy policy is a national and international policy concerning some or all aspects of nuclear energy and the nuclear fuel cycle, such as uranium mining, ore concentration, conversion, enrichment for nuclear fuel, generating electricity by nuclear power, storing and reprocessing spent nuclear fuel, and disposal of radioactive waste. Nuclear energy policies often include the regulation of energy use and standards relating to the nuclear fuel cycle. Other measures include efficiency standards, safety regulations, emission standards, fiscal policies, and legislation on energy trading, transport of nuclear waste and contaminated materials, and their storage. Governments might subsidize nuclear energy and arrange international treaties and trade agreements about the import and export of nuclear technology, electricity, nuclear waste, and uranium.
The anti-nuclear movement is a social movement that opposes various nuclear technologies. Some direct action groups, environmental movements, and professional organisations have identified themselves with the movement at the local, national, or international level. Major anti-nuclear groups include Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, Peace Action, Seneca Women's Encampment for a Future of Peace and Justice and the Nuclear Information and Resource Service. The initial objective of the movement was nuclear disarmament, though since the late 1960s opposition has included the use of nuclear power. Many anti-nuclear groups oppose both nuclear power and nuclear weapons. The formation of green parties in the 1970s and 1980s was often a direct result of anti-nuclear politics.
The THTR-300 was a thorium cycle high-temperature nuclear reactor rated at 300 MW electric (THTR-300) in Hamm-Uentrop, Germany. It started operating in 1983, synchronized with the grid in 1985, operated at full power in February 1987 and was shut down September 1, 1989. The THTR-300 served as a prototype high-temperature reactor (HTR) to use the TRISO pebble fuel produced by the AVR, an experimental pebble bed operated by VEW. The THTR-300 cost €2.05 billion and was predicted to cost an additional €425 million through December 2009 in decommissioning and other associated costs. The German state of North Rhine Westphalia, Federal Republic of Germany, and Hochtemperatur-Kernkraftwerk GmbH (HKG) financed the THTR-300’s construction.
Nuclear power generated 5.55% of Japan's electricity in 2023.
Nuclear power in Switzerland is generated by three nuclear power plants, with a total of four operational reactors (see list below). Since 1985, nuclear power has been contributing approximately 40% of Switzerland's electrical energy. In 2022, it produced 23 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity, and accounted for 37% of the nation's gross electricity generation of 62 TWh, while 55% was produced by hydroelectric plants and 8% came from conventional thermal power stations and non-hydro renewable energy sources.
The Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant is a disabled nuclear power plant located on a 350-hectare (860-acre) site in the towns of Ōkuma and Futaba in Fukushima Prefecture, Japan. The plant suffered major damage from the magnitude 9.1 earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan on March 11, 2011. The chain of events caused radiation leaks and permanently damaged several of its reactors, making them impossible to restart. The working reactors were not restarted after the events.
The Sendai Nuclear Power Plant is a nuclear power plant located in the city of Satsumasendai in Kagoshima Prefecture. The two 846 MW net reactors are owned and operated by the Kyūshū Electric Power Company. The plant, like all other nuclear power plants in Japan, did not generate electricity after the nationwide shutdown in the wake of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in 2011, but was restarted on August 11, 2015, and began providing power to nearby towns again. Sendai is the first of Japan's nuclear power plants to be restarted.
Obrigheim Nuclear Power Plant (KWO) is a nuclear power plant currently in the decommissioning phase. The plant is located in Obrigheim, Neckar-Odenwald-Kreis, on the banks of the Neckar and owned by EnBW. It operated a pressurized water reactor unit from 1969 to 2005. The defuelling process was completed in 2007, with spent fuel rods awaiting transport to an interim storage facility. In March 2017, EnBW tested the shipment of numerous castors by a barge on the Neckar to Neckarwestheim Nuclear Power Plant.
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 Wyhl protests were an example of a local community challenging the nuclear industry through a strategy of direct action and civil disobedience. Police were accused of using unnecessarily violent means. Anti-nuclear success at Wyhl inspired nuclear opposition throughout West Germany, in other parts of Europe, and in North America. A few years later protests raised against the NATO Double-Track Decision in West Germany and were followed by the foundation of the Green party.
Energy in Germany is obtained primarily from fossil fuels, accounting for 77.6% of total energy consumption in 2023, followed by renewables at 19.6%, and 0.7% nuclear power. On 15 April 2023, the three remaining German nuclear reactors were taken offline, completing the country's nuclear phase-out plan. As of 2023, German primary energy consumption amounted to 10,791 Petajoule, making it the ninth largest global primary energy consumer. Total consumption has been steadily declining from its peak of 14,845 Petajoule in 2006. In 2023 Germany's gross electricity production reached 508.1 TWh, down from 569.2 TWh in 2022 and 631.4 TWh in 2013.
Nuclear power in the European Union accounted for approximately 26% of total electricity production in 2019 and nearly half of low-carbon energy production across the EU.
Since about 2001 the term nuclear renaissance has been used to refer to a possible nuclear power industry revival, driven by rising fossil fuel prices and new concerns about meeting greenhouse gas emission limits.
National nuclear energy policy is a national policy concerning some or all aspects of nuclear energy, such as mining for nuclear fuel, extraction and processing of nuclear fuel from the ore, generating electricity by nuclear power, enriching and storing spent nuclear fuel and nuclear fuel reprocessing. Nuclear energy policies often include the regulation of energy use and standards relating to the nuclear fuel cycle.
The international reaction to the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster has been diverse and widespread. Many inter-governmental agencies responded to the Japanese Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, often on an ad hoc basis. Responders included International Atomic Energy Agency, World Meteorological Organization and the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization, which has radiation detection equipment deployed around the world.
This is a list of all the commercial nuclear reactors in the European Union and in Europe, with operational status. The list only includes civilian nuclear power reactors used to generate electricity for a power grid. All commercial nuclear reactors use nuclear fission. As of May 2021, there are 180 operable power reactors in Europe, with a combined electrical capacity of 159.36 GW. There are currently 8 power reactors under construction in Europe.
↑ "German Energy: Nuclear? Nein, danke". The Economist. Vol.399, no.8736. The Economist Newspaper Limited. 4–10 June 2011. pp.38–40. Archived from the original on 24 June 2013. Retrieved 17 April 2011.
↑ Frum, David (8 December 2021). "The West's Nuclear Mistake - No government that really regarded climate change as its top energy priority would close nuclear plants before the end of their useful lives". The Atlantic. Archived from the original on 6 January 2022. Retrieved 5 January 2022. Merkel coasted on Schröder's work through those early years, with approval ratings in the 70s. But then her luck ran out. The 2008–09 financial crisis touched Germany comparatively lightly, but it hit Germany's European trading partners hard. In 2010 and 2011, the countries of Southern Europe plunged into debt crises that forced a tough choice on Germany: rescue them, or risk seeing the euro currency zone dissolve. Under that pressure, Merkel's popularity sagged. Her disapproval numbers reached their peak of 43 percent in mid-2010. This was the political context at the time of Fukushima. And you can see why it forced a deep rethink on a profoundly risk-averse, formerly pro-nuclear chancellor. Germany has long been home to an active, mobilized movement against nuclear energy, much more so than other nuclear-using democracies. You can spend a lively evening with German friends discussing the sources of this movement's strength. Whatever the origin, however, the antinuclear movement offered a considerable political resource to a politician willing to use it. Many politicians had pondered this opportunity in the past, including Merkel's immediate predecessors. Merkel grasped it.
↑ Sovacool, Benjamin K. (August 2010). "A Critical Evaluation of Nuclear Power and Renewable Electricity in Asia". Journal of Contemporary Asia. 40 (3): 393–400. doi:10.1080/00472331003798350. S2CID154882872.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
