Reply #152: mothballed plants and policy

[divvy]

Germany Set to Abandon Nuclear Power for Good
by Juergen Baetz
March 23, 2011

BERLIN -- Germany is determined to show the world how abandoning nuclear energy can be done.

The world's fourth-largest economy stands alone among leading industrialized nations in its decision to stop using nuclear energy because of its inherent risks. It is betting billions on expanding the use of renewable energy to meet power demands instead.

The transition was supposed to happen slowly over the next 25 years, but is now being accelerated in the wake of Japan's Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant disaster, which Chancellor Angela Merkel has called a "catastrophe of apocalyptic dimensions."

Berlin's decision to take seven of its 17 reactors offline for three months for new safety checks has provided a glimpse into how Germany might wean itself from getting nearly a quarter of its power from atomic energy to none.

Read the full article at:

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/03/23-7

DU discussion thread here:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=439&topic_id=729003&mesg_id=729003