Twelve More Years For Germany’s Nuclear Power Plants
After marathon talks were held regarding the groundwork on energy policy, the final decision of Angela Merkel’s coalition government decided to extend the lifespans of German nuclear power plants.
These talks ended after having been on the table of discussions for some months now, as whether the Germany’s 17 nuclear power plants should run beyond current limits under which the last is about to close on 2021. “We’ve agreed that older nuclear plants will receive an extension of eight years, and newer ones operating with different technical standards will get a 14-year extension,” the environment minister, Norbert Roettgen, said after the meeting in Berlin.
Almost 1,000 environmentalists protested outside the chancellery as the decision was being taken, late last evening.
This decision is about to be considered the corner stone of the energy strategy that Merkel is due to apply, later this month.
This decision being taken, the Germany’s energy future can no longer be considered uncertain, as it is most certainly very clear, the future of Germany is nuclear. Apart from remaining active for 12 year more on average, the coalition leaders, agreed as well upon the fact that the energy companies should pay a nuclear fuel tax intended to raise 2.3bn EUROS. By this thing they could help the development of the renewable energy sources.
The contribution from the utility companies should amount for 300 million euros per year in next two years to come and then get lower and drop to 200 million euros annually from 2013 to 2016. The main companies that deal with eth Germany’s energy are E.On, RWE, EnBW and Vattenfall.
Anyhow, according to the chairman of the RWE, Jeurgen Grossmann: “It would get more expensive if nuclear power is turned off, because it would require many more expensive energy carriers to take over the portion of nuclear power,”.
Moreover the economic growth and the jobs will as well benefit from the prolonging the life of nuclear power plants. According to some very rapid shares, this decision will lead to the increase of 7,000 construction jobs and 0.6 percent of economic growth contribution, that is to say, by 2050 create around 100,000 jobs.
Later, today Mrs. Merkel and Mr. Roettgen are to make a statement together with the Economy Minister Rainer Bruederle.
