Nuclear mattersAbandoning nuclear power would cost Germany billions
Nuclear power is highly unpopular in Germany, and in the wake of the nuclear disaster in Japan, Germany chancellor Angela Merkel announced that Germany would abandon nuclear power generation (she called it “Atomausstieg,” or “nuclear exit”) and would gradually close its seventeen nuclear power plants; there is a debate in Germany about whether abandoning nuclear power would cost Germany 3 billion Euros a year – or only 2 billion Euros, as the government says it would
Protests and Fukushima ended German nuclear program // Source: treehugger.com
German Economy Minister Rainer Bruederle said Friday that a switch from nuclear power to alternative forms of energy could cost Europe’s top economy up to €2 billion ($2.9 billion) per year.
“It could be one to two billion euros,” the minister told German radio, cautioning that a precise figure was “difficult to estimate.”
Citing internal government projections, the Sueddeutsche Zeitung daily earlier reported the costs would be €3 billion annually. “That order of magnitude seems a little high to me,” countered Bruederle.
AFP reports that the minister’s comments came as Chancellor Angela Merkel prepared to hold talks with heads of Germany’s states to discuss future energy policy in the wake of Japan’s nuclear crisis.
Merkel has said the disaster at the Fukushima plant in Japan was a turning point and announced a three-month moratorium on an earlier decision to extend the lifetime of Germany’s seventeen nuclear reactors.
Nuclear power is highly unpopular in Germany, and hundreds of thousands have taken to the streets to demand the reactors be switched off.
The economy and environment ministries have drawn up a joint plan for the accelerated development of alternative energy, which focuses notably on wind power.
“One thing is for sure, it’s going to cost money,” Bruederle said.
