Conservatives rebel over German government's nuclear rethink

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,5245200,00.html

Nuclear | 13.02.2010

Conservatives rebel over German government's nuclear rethink

Germany's environment minister said that no efforts should be wasted to replace nuclear technology as fast as possible, but German states with atomic power facilities are pushing for a 20-year delay.

The conservative regional environment ministers from the states of Bavaria, Baden Wuerttemberg and Hesse said in a joint press conference on Friday, February 12, that Germany will need nuclear power for considerably longer before renewable energies are ready to viably replace the technology.

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In an interview with the daily paper Sueddeutsche Zeitung earlier this week, Roettgen advocated extending the already limited running times of German nuclear power plants by a further eight years.

This would mean German atomic energy plants should shut down 40 years after they started operating, a deadline ranging between 2015 and 2029 for various plants across the country. Roettgen, however, also said that safety issues could lead to changes in the dates of disassembly.

The three dissenters - Markus Soeder from Bavaria, Tanya Goeder from Baden Wuerttemberg, and Silke Lautenschlaeger from Hesse - advocate a further 20 years on top of Roettgen's suggestion. All of them represent German states with nuclear power plants and argue that renewable energy will not be ready to replace atomic power in time to realize Roettgen's proposal.

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[Dogmudgeon]

1. They prefer coal

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,547555-3,00.html">Where Will Germany's Energy Come From?

They are building coal power plants with a total of over 28 GWe capacity.

AND, they increasingly rely on Gazprom (Russia) for natural gas, and EdF (France) for electricity generated by ... nuclear energy. Then again, they have an Elvis impersonator as Environment Minister -- Sigmar "Siggi Pop" Gabriel -- whose antipathy to all things nuclear led him to support a disastrous biofuel scam.


http://de.uncyclopedia.org/wiki/Sigmar_Gabriel">''Siggi Pop,, Deutschlands SPD Environment-Minister, Baby!

--d!