All nuclear power plants in Germany will be shut down by 2022, Chancellor Angela Merkel and ruling coalition parties agreed, in a reaction to Japan’s Fukushima disaster that stirred a drastic political and social controversy.

The coalition government plan to keep the oldest of Germany’s 17 nuclear reactors permanently shut. In addition to those eight plants, seven were already closed temporarily in March, just after the earthquake and its aftermath in Fukushima. One power plant has been inactive for years.

Another six will be offline by 2021, Norbert Röttgen, german environment minister, informed early on Monday after late-night debates in the chancellor’s office between leaders of the centre-right coalition, CDU,FDP and the Union after an ethics commission ended its deliberations.

Three New nuclear plants in Germany continue to operate

Germany’s newest three nuclear reactors will continue operating for another year until 2022 as a safety measure to ensure no setback to power supply, he stated.

Chancellor Angela Merkel abandoned the idea to extend the life of ageing nuclear plants in Germany in March, where the majority of public opposes atomic energy policy in Germany.

The German decision on the fate of power plants still needs to go through Bundestag and leaders of the oppositional parties, Social Democrats and the Greens were present in the meeting to enable a broad consensus.

The decision is expected to face opposition from the utility companies such as RWE, EON, Vattenfall and EnBW, that run the 17 nuclear plants, mainly because of plans to keep a batable nuclear fuel rod tax.

The coalition wants to retain the tax, which was expected to raise €2.3bn a year from this year, but so far has not been levied. With the immediate exit of eight plants, however, it will raise less than envisaged.

Germany nuclear power policy heavily disputed

Before Chancellor Merkel shut down the oldest plants for three months, Germany received 23 per cent of its power from nuclear plants.

Nuclear policy is a hot topic and heavily disputed in Germany and the Greens benefited mostly from the issue. Thet won the elections in one of the CDU’s stronghold states, Baden-Württemberg, in March.

 

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