Germany to rethink nuclear power

Germany-NuclearPlant

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Germany-NuclearPlantIn the wake of Japan’s nuclear disaster, Germany has announced it will speed up efforts to abandon nuclear energy. ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) reports that German chancellor Angela Merkel has decided to rethink extending the life of the country’s 17 nuclear power plants. She has temporarily shut down seven of the country’s oldest reactors and suspended a decision on the fate of the other plants.

Reuters has told of Environment Minister Norbert Roettgen presenting ideas on new standards for nuclear energy which are being sharply criticised by opposition as being financially unviable for the industry.

Merke’s sudden change of stance on atomic energy is being heckled by the other parties and the country’s nuclear industry however Merkel supposedly rejoined, “When, in Japan, the apparently impossible becomes possible, then the situation changes”

In fact, the entire world seems to be rethinking the whole idea of using nuclear energy as a viable option for “clean” energy. Concerns over global warming have increased everyone’s awareness of the need to move from the burning of fossil fuels, but just what alternatives are viable over the long term?

Nuclear power accounts for one quarter of Germany’s electricity. (Wikipedia) There is a plan to phase-out nuclear production in favour of renewable energy however, critics of the phase-out point to the problems of bringing other sources of energy on-line in time. If not, shutting down a nuclear plant could lead to having to bring back coal.

Is this the trade-off? Safety and pollution or no safety and no pollution? The Washington Post provided an interesting commentary: Don’t Write Off Nuclear Energy Just Yet

Japan’s nuclear catastrophe has caused a huge rethink about atomic power worldwide.

But at a time when oil prices have been pushing higher and renewable sources of electricity generation either rely on large dams or are intermittent and very expensive—like wind and wave power—that nuclear rethink may not last long.

The Fukushima Daiichi disaster won’t turn into a Chernobyl.

compared with the routine disasters in the coal mining industry. For instance, the Macro Man blog points out that 2,433 people were killed in Chinese coal mines last year and even this was down substantially from an annual average of 7,619 during the late 1990s. That’s not to mention the wider health costs and other externalities of burning the stuff. As George Monbiot’s blog in The Guardian pointed out Wednesday, coal fired power stations carry into the surrounding environment “100 times more radiation than a nuclear plant producing the same amount of energy.”

Yes, Japan is having a nuclear crisis. But what are the problems of the alternatives? Do we know? Wikipedia reports that 2,631 people were killed in coal mining accident in 2009. How many have died globally?

Is radiation a problem with anything other than nuclear power?

Scientific American tells an interesting story:

The waste produced by coal plants is actually more radioactive than that generated by their nuclear counterparts. In fact, the fly ash emitted by a power plant—a by-product from burning coal for electricity—carries into the surrounding environment 100 times more radiation than a nuclear power plant producing the same amount of energy.

What!?! Get out. That can’t be true. From the same article:

*Editor’s Note

Our source for this statistic is Dana Christensen, an associate lab director for energy and engineering at Oak Ridge National Laboratory as well as 1978 paper in Science authored by J.P. McBride and colleagues, also of ORNL.

As a general clarification, ounce for ounce, coal ash released from a power plant delivers more radiation than nuclear waste shielded via water or dry cask storage.

Euronews – Mar 17/2011

Nuclear power in Germany under scrutiny

Future plans for nuclear power were top of the agenda as parliament met in Germany, in the wake of the crisis in Japan. Chancellor Angela Merkel sought to calm fears that a similar disaster could happen in Germany. She also defended her government’s policy on nuclear power. Merkel told parliament that German nuclear plants are among the safest in the world and refused to stop the nuclear programme, which would put Germany in the position of having to import nuclear power from other countries.

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