Recognizing the critical importance of a secure and affordable energy supply, especially for a country whose prosperity is also based on energy-intensive industries, from mechanical engineering to automobile manufacturing, German policymakers are making large-scale investments in energy renewable. We are also investing in green hydrogen, storage technologies, energy efficiency and energy conservation
With the closure of its last three nuclear power plants, Germany has completed its withdrawal from nuclear power. As the minister responsible for nuclear safety in Germany, I believe this was an excellent move – indeed, visionary. There are many important justifications, but five are particularly compelling.
First, phasing out nuclear power makes Germany safer. No nuclear power plant in the world is safe enough to rule out a catastrophic accident. Such an accident can be caused by human error (as in Chernobyl in 1986) or natural disasters (as in Japan's Fukushima in 2011). It could be caused by a terrorist attack, plane crash, or simply a neglected weakness in our security strategies. Or, at worst, it could arise from a military attack, like the ones Russia has carried out in Ukraine.
Whatever the cause, a nuclear power plant accident can be catastrophic, causing destruction on a scale unmatched by any other form of power generation. No insurance policy covers this risk, in Germany or anywhere else. The Environment Ministry, the country's top nuclear safety authority, has spent decades making sure power plants adhere to the highest standards. But no matter how hard we work, there is no absolute safety with nuclear power, which is why decommissioning is a relief to me.
A second reason to welcome Germany's abandonment of nuclear power is that we will no longer be producing highly radioactive nuclear waste. Nuclear power has provided electricity for three generations, but its legacy of radioactive waste will be around for the next 30 years. How a technology with such long-term consequences can be classified as sustainable is a mystery to me.
In fact, despite the departure, the legacy of the waste means that Germany still has a long way to go to ensure nuclear safety. There are currently no final repositories to safely store spent fuel rods anywhere in the world, and finding a place for one is extremely difficult and expensive.
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Third, despite what advocates claim, nuclear power is neither climate friendly nor particularly reliable. Even if it contributes less to the climate crisis than coal or gas, it is clearly bad for the climate, not least because the reactors have to be cooled with large amounts of water. This puts significant pressure on local rivers, which are already under stress from climate change. France had to import significant amounts of electricity from Germany last year due to technical problems with its reactors and a lack of enough water to cool them. In some cases, the rivers overheated so much that water for cooling the reactors could not be removed or discharged.
As temperatures rise and droughts increase, restrictions on the use of river water for cooling nuclear reactors will intensify. We need resilient energy supply that not only avoids contributing to climate change, but can also withstand the inevitable effects of higher temperatures. In this sense, nuclear energy is not suitable for the future.
The fourth point worth noting is that nuclear power is not cheap, especially when the costs of uranium mining, waste management and insurance are factored in. In the United States, 12 nuclear power plants were taken off the grid between 2009 and 2021 because they were not economically viable.
New nuclear projects are not viable without significant government subsidies. The Flamanville-3 project in northern France is running 12 years behind schedule and will cost more than 10 billion euros ($11 billion) more than originally planned. Nuclear power costs are also exploding in the UK and Finland. And if Europe wants to end its dependence on Russian energy imports, it will also have to end imports of uranium and nuclear fuel elements.
The final reason to welcome the closure of Germany's remaining nuclear power plants is that we simply don't need nuclear power. There are better alternatives. Solar and wind power are now much cheaper to produce. They are also safer, more durable and more climate friendly. With the right standards in place, they are also in line with nature conservation.
This helps explain why nuclear power's share of total global primary energy consumption has declined since 2000, accounting for just 5% in 2019. In contrast, renewable energy has been growing for years. Production costs are falling and installed capacity is rising – including in Germany since the current government took office.
Recognizing the critical importance of a secure and affordable energy supply, especially for a country whose prosperity is also based on energy-intensive industries, from mechanical engineering to automobile manufacturing, German policymakers are making large-scale investments in energy renewable. We are also investing in green hydrogen, storage technologies, energy efficiency and energy conservation.
The expansion of renewable energy is undoubtedly challenging and we have to admit that we are not yet as far as we would like. At the same time, Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine has forced us to temporarily turn to coal and liquefied natural gas. But none of this makes a convincing argument in favor of maintaining, let alone expanding, nuclear power.
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Successive German governments, all of our country's democratic parties, and even nuclear power plant operators have agreed to phase out nuclear power, driven by the same compelling logic that drove countless citizens, farmers, growers, and mayors to spend decades advocating a gradual departure. It would be irresponsible indeed to turn our backs on this broad social consensus.
(Steffi Lemke is Germany's Federal Minister for the Environment and Nuclear Safety. The comment was written for the global journalism network, "Project Syndicate", of which "Koha Ditore" is also a part.)
