"Atoms-out" in Germany.

• Author: Murphy, Jason
• Position: Minimising the use of nuclear energy - Editorial

[This was written on November 13, 2003--the Editors.] On Friday, the first nuclear reactor is scheduled to be taken off the grid as the first part of a schedule that eventually ends all use of atomic power in Germany. The reactor, in the city of Stade on the lower Elbe, is 31 years old and was built by the old East German regime. The reactor will be taken apart and turned into a large green field that borders the river at a cost of 575 million dollars.

The German Greens made the Atomaussteig a condition for entering the government and the fact that it would be threatened or delayed without them has been a factor behind the compromises that have been made. The red/green government entered negotiations with the energy companies that set up this schedule and allowed companies to trade electricity purchased from outside Germany, which will pump some money into Eastern European firms and tax coffers. Energy companies operating in Germany now tell investors that these changes have ended their interest in returning to a nuclear economy. One hopes this means that reactors will not be put back on line with changes in government.

The Stade reactor, owned by Eon, was the first to go because it had been the least profitable. Some of the lost energy will be made up by wind and solar facilities that have been subsidized over the past few years. If you travel by train through the eastern part of Germany you often see windmills around nuclear reactors. Much of the lost energy will be made up by increased use of remaining reactors until more alternative means are...