Berlin: Germany to shut down three remaining nuclear power plants. Three plants, Emsland, Isar 2 and Neckarvestime, will be closed on Saturday. Since 2002, Germany has planned to phase out nuclear power. Former Chancellor Angela Merkel accelerated this decision following the Fukushima disaster in Japan. Merkel said at the time that Fukushima showed that even a high-tech country like Japan cannot control the risks of nuclear power. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 cut off access to Russian gas and plunged it into an energy crisis.
A few months before the last three plants in Germany were to shut down on December 31, 2022, there had been public criticism. High energy prices and climate change have called for the expansion of power plants. Then they agreed to extend the life of the plants till April 15
Since 2003, 16 reactors have been shut down in Germany. Germany will generate 46 percent of its energy from renewables by 2022. A decade ago it was less than 25 percent. The latter three plants provided six percent of Germany’s energy last year. Coal still accounts for a third of Germany’s electricity generation. Planning and approval of a wind power project currently takes four to five years on average.