Call for German nuclear reactor shutdown

[n2doc]

Call for German nuclear shutdown
By Mike Sanders
BBC News


The German Environment Minister, Sigmar Gabriel, has called for seven of the country's oldest nuclear reactors to be closed down immediately.
Justifying his demand, Mr Gabriel pointed to recent breakdowns at two ageing nuclear plants.

Germany is committed to phasing out nuclear power by 2020.

Mr Gabriel told a German newspaper that it would be of great technical benefit from the safety standpoint to close the oldest reactors now.

As a trade-off, newer reactors could be kept running longer.

Opinion divided

Mr Gabriel is a member of the Social Democrats, whose previous coalition government with the Greens drafted the nuclear switch-off policy.

Now they are sharing power with the more nuclear-friendly Christian Democrats, they face a battle to maintain the strategy.

But if there is to be any trade-off in capacity, the nuclear industry, including the unions, would rather give up some output from newer plants to keep the older ones going longer.

It is technically feasible: in the United States, some plants have had their design life of 30 years doubled. But it would require a political about-turn.

So far, two of Germany's 19 nuclear plants have been shut down.

link:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6973999.stm

[NNadir]

1. Justitfying his demand is his coal friends and gas friends.

He couldn't care less how many people are killed because of Gazprom's purchase of Garhard Schroeder.

He couldn't care less how many people die in the South African coal mines that will fuel his country's next 26 new coal plants. He couldn't care less about how many people die from the air pollution from the new coal plants. He couldn't care less about the people who climate change will kill because he is an anti-nuke paranoid.

[Tikki]

2. Like the little commercial says: "Dad we need a

new refrigerator...this one's old, and what's with these cabinets and the lights."

Time to move on to a newer styles of energy...you will get no complaint from me for wanting alternatives to coal and oil....
but, nuclear has the potential for damage to human life (all life) that is unfathomable.

Instead of kicking these mean old horses around, let's use our intellect and hard work for energies that can be useful and safe.


Tikki

[OKIsItJustMe]

3. Who are your friends?

Who are the largest proponents of Nuclear power? Why, the nuclear industry of course! (through lobbying groups like the Nuclear Power Oversight Committee and the Nuclear Energy Institute.) Nuclear power means a continuation of "business as usual," where customers pay money to utilities, for power generated at large generating facilities.

We're told that Nuclear Power is absolutely safe. Okay, if that's true, why would the industry lobby for renewal of the Price-Anderson Act to get government protection from large-scale liability? (If it's so safe, there should be no need for something like the Price-Anderson Act.)

The nuclear power industry (really just a subset of the power industry) pays big money to influence government policy. Sometimes, they're caught red-handed in conflicts of interest. Much of the time they are not.


Proponents of nuclear power (notably the industry itself) dismiss alternatives, like solar and wind power. Why? in part, because they allow a revolution in power generation. When customers can generate their own power on their own roofs, then the large-scale power generators are in trouble. So, they produce misleading graphics like this, implying that we would need to surrender entire states to power generation.

Germany is legally mandating the development of alternative energies. I say "more power to them." The only way we can get change to the status quo is to demand it.

---

"Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did, and it never will."

Frederick Douglass

[struggle4progress]

4. Solar Power Leads The Charge Against Fossil Fuels

9-1-2007

... Renewables made up more than 5 percent of Germany’s total primary energy supply in 2006, according to the Environment Ministry. The government’s goal is to increase the share of electric power from renewables to 12.5 percent by 2010 and 20 percent by 2020.

Wind energy remains the country’s leading renewable source of electricity, but solar power use has increased to about 750 megawatts installed in 2006, up from 83 megawatts in 2002, according to the German Solar Industry Association.

The solar industry is now becoming a $6 billion a year business that builds more than 50 percent of the world’s installed solar panels. About 43,000 people work in the industry, according to the association.

“ Germany is technologically leading in solar technology, most solar plants are installed here and, what is even more important, are produced here,” said Carsten Koernig, head of the German Solar Industry Association. “And this is the decisive factor, because other countries will follow and then we want to supply these huge growth markets with solar technology ‘made in Germany.’” ...

http://www.chiefengineer.org/content/content_display.cfm/seqnumber_content/3095.htm