June 01, 2011

Germans say “No” to nuclear power, but struggle over the country’s energy future will continue

Berlin’s famous Brandenburg Gate was draped with a huge yellow and black anti-nuclear banner as Germans took to the streets once again, with 160,000 demonstrating Saturday in 21 cities for an end to nuclear power -- now. On Monday the government announced its awaited decision – a complete nuclear shut down by 2022. The end of nuclear power is in sight: So why aren’t activists cheering?

Anna Gyorgy reports fom Bonn:
"German national elections in September 2009 brought in a conservative-liberal government led by Chancellor Angela Merkel. A year later, in close communication with the heads of the four largest energy companies, she announced a key part of her ‘energy revolution.’ The country’s 17 nuclear power plants could continue to operate for an average of 12 years beyond the phase-out by 2022 set during the previous Social Democrat (“Red”) and Green Party government. Nuclear was to be a ‘bridge technology’ to a future of renewable energy sources, but a long bridge, extending into or even past the 2030s.

How different is the new era, post-Fukushima! Following the disaster in Japan in March, with great speed and on the eve of a major state election, she declared a three month closure of Germany’s 7 oldest nukes and one accident-prone plant, and reversed the four month old operating extension.

But her strong statements about making a rapid transition to renewable energy and leaving the nuclear age behind did not help her party in the election in Baden-Württemberg. There, for the first time, the Green Party won so many votes that they could replace the state’s formerly pro-nuclear leader. Nor did Merkel’s stance stop anti-nuclear demonstrations around the country. Saddened and outraged at the disaster at Fukushima and remembering the radioactive clouds over Germany from the Chernobyl explosion 25 years before, people of all ages came out to say: Atomic power – Schluss! Shut them down now.

The anti-nuclear movement was mobilized before Fukushima, opposing the Merkel government’s nuclear extension plans with huge marches and rallies, non-violent blockades, ‘flash mob’ actions and bicycle and tractor treks. After the horrific reactor meltdowns and uncontrolled releases of radiation in Japan their demands to close all nukes – now! – gained mass support. And suddenly even pro-nuclear politicians began extolling the ‘atomic exit.’

On Saturday, May 28, as the bright yellow ‘Smiling Sun’ (“Nuclear Power? – No Thanks”) banner-waving demonstrators marched by the tens of thousands, (photos here), the Merkel-appointed “Ethics Commission” released its findings after a six week study of the country’s nuclear future. It recommended a complete atomic shutdown in 10 years.

On Sunday, following the largest coordinated demonstrations ever, Jochen Stay of the national anti-nuclear organization .ausgestrahlt, called again for an immediate shutdown: “Even in the so-called newest plants -- now much older than 20 years – a core meltdown could happen any day.” But recognizing that this would be “improbable,” he listed demands in the case of a 10 year phase-out plan.

These included: no ‘going back’, no possibility of changing the decision, which would make the economic incentive for renewables less secure; not allowing newer plants to run longer in the place of older ones shut earlier; and no nukes should be kept ‘in reserve for emergencies’ – for this could invite the restart of plants once the cruel images of Fukushima had faded in the public’s mind.

Rather, there should be a clear time for each reactor to be taken off-line, and shut down forever. Finally, the controversial waste storage facility at Gorleben should be abandoned, “because the salt domes there are geologically unsuited to preserve high-level radioactive waste in perpetuity.” In conclusion, “The longer the German government supports atomic energy and the less our demands are met, the stronger the civil conflict around nuclear energy will continue,” he said.

So what happened? The ‚unique and historic‘ nuclear exit of Dr. Merkel and government announced on Monday, May 30^th, after all-night negotiations with her coalition partners, basically reflects all those complex challenges – and more.

The highly heralded shut-down plan goes like this. Eight reactors, those closed since the Fukushima accident, will go off-line now. The nine remaining can operate until 2021, with three of the ‘newer’ ones (1988 and 1989) continuing until 2022. But in case of supply problems, reserve electrical capacity must be available. Thus one of the old reactors will be held on stand-by for possible use.  This is a problem, as a huge radioactive factory cannot just be turned on and off at the flick of a switch; thus keeping a nuclear reactor in reserve means basically keeping it on-line, which is one of the problems anticipated by anti-nuclear activists.

Another is a reliance on coal ‘on the way’ to renewables. And this on the same day that the International Energy Agency reported that global emissions of carbon dioxide hit their highest level ever in 2010. The reasoning is as follows: the nuclear plant closure will remove 20 Gigawatts (GW) from Germany’s 90 GW total production. On a bitter cold winter day there could be demand for 80 GW. Thus 10 GW would be missing. Instead of major programs for energy conservation and efficiency measures (although there will be some of this) and local, relatively low-cost land-based wind energy, the plan is to build rapidly 10 GW of fossil fuel plants by 2013.  By 2020 another 10 GW capacity should be available, whether fossil or renewable is unclear. (TAZ, 31 May 2011).

The so-called phase-out plan was sharply criticized by solar advocates at Eurosolar, which “condemns the government’s attempt, contrary to the Ethic Commission’s recommendation, to use the plan to benefit German energy companies… A serious nuclear phase-out can only happen through an acceleration of the current (renewable) energy development – with the tested and by now highly effective technologies that have made Germany a leader in recent years.“

Other environmental experts criticized government and industry plans favoring centralized coal and large-scale off-shore wind facilities, instead of house insulation and on-shore wind. Support was in fact cut for the cheapest form of wind power, on land.

Thus this seemingly terrific turn-around – actually taking Germany more or less back to the earlier (2001) phase-out by 2022 – has some real problems and is not going to calm the waters stirred by social protest. The decision, and new policy, is still in its early stages, and there are many details and new laws and regulations that need to be worked out, debated – and undoubtedly opposed.

Activists are going ahead with plans for non-violent blockades at two nuclear plants on June 12-13, and the local organizations around the Gorleben waste facility are calling for another massive effort to block the next radwaste shipment from France, expected in November.

And my in-box Tuesday morning brought a new petition to the Chancellor from the coordinating internet campaign campact, saying “We want a real atomic phase-out – without tricks or back doors.”

Anna Gyorgy was active in the US and international safe energy movement three decades ago. Since 1999 she has coordinated the multilingual website www.wloe.org, since 2003 for the German association Women & Life on Earth e.V., now based in Bonn.

See also: After Fukushima - Why are thousands of people on the street in Germany?

Our translation of a press release from ausgestrahlt.de:

Saturday, May 28, 2011:
160,000 people demonstrate in more than 20 German cities for an immediate nuclear shutdown

Berlin: For the first time in the history of the anti-nuclear movement, 160,000 people in more than 20 cities demonstrated simultaneously for a rapid end to nuclear power under the motto: "Nuclear power - Schluss!" .

In the nation’s capital, 25,000 nuclear power opponents stopped at the CDU (Christian Democrats, conservatives) headquarters and demanded that Chancellor Angela Merkel push through the nuclear exit in Germany without any delays.

The demonstrations in Berlin, Hamburg, Frankfurt am Main, Kiel, Bremen, Hannover, Göttingen, Munich, Fürth, Landshut, Mannheim, Freiburg, Ulm, Bonn, Münster, Essen, Mainz, Dresden, Magdeburg, Güstrow and Erfurt were called by the Bund für Umwelt und Naturschutz Deutschland (German Friends of  the Earth), the Anti-Atom Organisation .ausgestrahlt, Attac, Campact, Robin Wood, contrAtom, the NaturFreunde Deutschland and the IG Metall (metalworkers‘ union).

The nation-wide protest is a clear sign that the majority of the population rejects nuclear energy and demands a rapid energy U-turn, organizers stated. This determination should not be ignored by the Chancellor in her up-coming decision about a nuclear shutdown. At the end of the nuclear plant moratorium there must be an immediate end to nuclear power, with no excuses. The disaster at Fukushima and the fact that the also the German Reactor Safety Commission doesn’t consider even one domestic nuclear plant safe, allows no other decision.

Evidently German Chancellor Angela Merkel is less interested in the announced new evaluation of nuclear risks after Fukushima and the quickest possible exit from nuclear, than in peace in her (governing) coalition.

A delay in the urgent and quickest possible exit from nuclear power is not acceptable, declared the organizers. In the coming weeks people will continue the struggle for the immediate shut-down of every single nuclear plant. Many organizations and groups are already planning large blockade actions at several nuclear plants on Sunday-Monday June 12-13)."