Germany shuts down 3 of 6 nuclear plants despite energy crisis

Germany has closed three of its remaining six nuclear power stations in line with its plans to phase out nuclear energy by the end of the year, in a move widely expected to lead to an increase in the short-term use of fossil fuels as Europe deals with an ongoing energy crisis and soaring natural gas prices.

Operations ended at plants in Brokdorf in Schleswig-Holstein, Grohnde in Lower Saxony and Gundremmingen Unit C in Bavaria, leaving three nuclear plants left in Germany. It is estimated that the decommissioning process will take up to 20 years and cost €1.1 billion per plant. All three plants were brought online in the mid-1980s.

The decision to phase out nuclear power was made in 2011 by Angela Merkel's administration in the wake of the Fukushima meltdown in Japan. An earthquake and tsunami destroyed the coastal plant causing the world's worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl in 1986.

Read more: Germany to pay €2.4bn compensation for post-Fukushima nuclear shutdown

The nuclear plant in Brokdorf, a small village around 40 km northwest of Hamburg on the river Elbe, was the first in the world to go online after the disaster in Chernobyl. Following the disaster, Germany saw increased radiation levels in soil and foods across the country and Brokdorf was soon filled with protesters numbering in the hundreds of thousands. 

Since then, the power plant has seen monthly demonstrations by environmentalists who vowed in 1986 to continue until it was shut down. After 35 years, the activists held their 425th and final vigil last month with local pastor and co-founder of the initiative, Hans-Günter Werner saying that when they began they "didn't expect to stand here for so long".

The three remaining plants - in Bavaria, Lower Saxony and Baden-Württemberg - are scheduled for closure by the end of 2022 and will mark the end of domestic nuclear power production in Germany. Their closure will cut German energy output by around 4 GW - around the same as 1,000 wind turbines.

While Germany has traditionally been wary of nuclear power, there are signs that public opinion is softening on the issue, though the new government in Berlin shows no signs of changing tack. A recent survey by YouGov for the Welt am Sonntag newspaper found that half of Germans were in favour of reversing the nuclear phase-out policy as a result of the recent spike in energy prices.

One member of the German Council of Economic Experts, Monika Schnitzer, was quoted in the Rheinische Post as saying it would make "economic and ecological" sense to delay the shutdown.

According to the World Nuclear Association (WNA), nuclear power plants produce no greenhouse gas emissions and produce around the same amount of carbon dioxide-equivalent emissions per unit as wind, and one-third per unit when compared with solar. 

Read more: New German government accelerates transition, vows to ban coal by 2030

Nonetheless, the country's Economy and Climate Protection Minister Robert Habeck of the Green Party said he saw no weakening of the anti-nuclear consensus and that the end of nuclear is part of Berlin's Energiewende (energy transition) policy.

Kerstin Andreae, the head of the German energy industry association BDEW added that the phaseout was irreversible.

While Germany has been phasing out nuclear energy, several other countries, including France, Russia, India, China, the US and the UK, continue to rely on nuclear with several new reactors either under construction or in the planning stages.

According to the WNA, there are presently 440 nuclear plants online globally, accounting for around 10% of the world's energy mix, making it the second-largest source of low-carbon energy. 50 more reactors are currently under construction.

The three nuclear closures have come at a difficult time. By December 2021, the price of energy in Europe had skyrocketed to ten times that of the start of the year. This price hike has been fuelled by geopolitical tensions between the EU and Russia, which supplies roughly one-third of Europe's natural gas.

Moscow has been accused of limiting gas deliveries to pile pressure onto Brussels over the conflict in Ukraine, as well as the controversial Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline. While the pipeline was completed last year, it is yet to receive official certification. Once underway, Russia would then be able to supply even more gas to Germany and the EU, something which critics say could be used as a weapon by Moscow.

Read more: Germany Suspends Approval Of Nord Stream 2

The closures also go against the grain of the EU's official green taxonomy framework, a list of energy sources that the Commission recognises as 'green' and therefore eligible for state investment. 

The list was released on December 31 and included nuclear energy "as a means to facilitate the transition towards a predominantly renewable-based future", a move which sparked a backlash by environmental groups and was labelled by Germany and some other EU states as 'greenwashing'.

A group of official experts has until January 12 to provide a formal response to the draft proposal and the Commission says it hopes to adopt a final text by the end of the month.

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