Germans Changing tune on nuclear?Germans having second look at use of nuclear energy
Posted April 22nd, 2007 by Tarique
International
By Saeid Najar Nobari
Berlin, April 22, (IRNA) Germans are not ready yet to mothball their country's 17 nuclear power plants despite government plans to gradually abandon atomic energy by the year 2021.
While opinion polls continue to indicate that most Germans remain opposed to nuclear energy, the momentum is slowly shifting in favor of the pro-atomic power camp, especially after the Russian gas crises over the past two winters.
Prospects of a severe oil and gas shortage have sparked again the nuclear debate in German homes which is an emotional issue to many people, particularly following the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster.
Germany's conservative political leaders have caught on to the changing nationwide sentiment over the use of nuclear power, accounting presently for 26 percent of all energy consumption in the country.
"In the long-term, there is no alternative to nuclear power," Secretary-General of the Christian Social Union (CSU) Markus Soeder was quoted saying.
CSU leader Edmund Stoiber who is an ally of Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union, urged the center-right government to renege on its grand coalition agreement with the co-ruling Social Democrats (SPD) to shut down Germany's remaining nuclear reactors in a bid to lower Germany's dependence on foreign energy sources.
"One should be able to discuss this without provoking a fight within the coalition," Stoiber said.
Meanwhile Merkel has called on her coalition partner - the SPD - to open the way for a longer use of the nation's 17 nuclear power plants.
Addressing a Christian Democratic party congress in the eastern city of Dresden last year, Merkel said, Technically safe power plants should not be shut down because it would not make any sense.
She warned Social Democrats of getting involved in "nonsensical ideological debates" over the issue of atomic power plants.
Merkel stressed Germany could meet its climate protection goals, provided the country continues to use nuclear energy.
The chancellor's remarks were echoed by CDU legislator Peter Paziorek who is an expert on environment and nuclear reactor safety.
"There is underlying support for lifting the limits regulating plant operating lives."
Although phasing out nuclear energy is still on the agenda, Germany's nuclear reactors are still working at full power, having raised their electricity production in 2006.
German atomic power plants generated 167.4 billion kilowatt hours of electricity last year, compared to around 163 billion kilowatt hours in 2005.
Germany's powerful nuclear lobby which enjoys close ties with Merkel's party, is hoping to slow down plans for phasing out atomic power.
The nuclear industry has organized various countrywide conferences in recent months on the benefits of atomic energy, while pointing to the fact that all over Europe new nuclear reactors are being built.
It has also argued that Germany nuclear reactors are among the safest in the world and do not pose any dangers.
Industry lobbyists are also advocating nuclear energy as a serious alternative to oil and coal since atomic reactors produce almost no greenhouse gas emissions and oil prices are hovering at high levels.
Critics of a phase-out in Germany also claim that the power output from nuclear power facilities will not be adequately compensated for and predict a major future energy crisis.
Pulling the plug on Germany's nuclear energy program whose origin dates back to World War II, might be easier said than done, as many political experts anticipate that continued global energy crises and ongoing public fears over energy shortages will in the end roll back a half decade of German anti-nuclear legislation.