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Nuclear Energy: A Disastrous Investment

Cara Palmer |
August 1, 2011 | 12:51 p.m. PDT

Staff Columnist

(Michael Thompson, Creative Commons)
(Michael Thompson, Creative Commons)
Three European countries have decided to lead the way toward a future of sustainable green energy. Germany and Switzerland announced in May 2011 that they would be shutting down their nuclear power plants by 2022 and 2034, respectively. Italy had already abandoned nuclear power plants in 1987, but began their program again recently – and just announced that it will once again halt production of nuclear energy.

These countries have looked back on disasters of the past – Three Mile Island in March 1979, Chernobyl in April 1986, and Fukushima in March 2011, which all had disastrous consequences – and decided that producing energy from nuclear power plants is not worth the risk. Huffington Post reports: “Many Germans have vehemently opposed nuclear power since Chernobyl sent radioactivity over the country. Tens of thousands of people took to the streets after Fukushima to urge the government to shut all reactors quickly.”

Matthias Kleiner, co-chairman of a government-mandated commission on the ethics of nuclear power, stated: “Fukushima was a dramatic experience, seeing there that a high-technology nation can’t cope with such a catastrophe…Nuclear power is a technology with too many inherent risks to inflict it on us or our children.”

Italy decided to phase out its plants after the 1986 Chernobyl accident. Germany and Switzerland have decided to follow that same path after the recent Fukishima accident, even though a large portion of their energy (25% of Germany’s and 40% of Switzerland’s) comes from nuclear power.

These three countries are using the abandonment of nuclear power to lead the way in the adoption of wide-scale production and use of green energy. Global Post reports, “Germany hopes to largely replace the lost nuclear energy with renewables such as wind and solar, although some natural gas will also be needed to replace the energy that comes from nuclear reactors – almost a quarter of its total.” Germany’s Chancellor, Angela Merkel, stated: “This is more than consensus for a nuclear exit, this is consensus for a switch to renewable energy.”

Germany’s green technology sector has been growing and thriving over the past few years, and this new development will provide a test case. Chancellor Merkel believes that Germany can set an example for the world by demonstrating “how it is possible to achieve growth, creating jobs and economic prosperity while shifting the energy supply toward renewable energies.”

Germany’s new plan for energy is multi-faceted, including creation of a power supply that does not rely on imports and is affordable for consumers, investment in natural gas plants, reduction of carbon dioxide emissions by 40%, and multiplication of Germany’s share of renewable energies from 17% to 35%. Chancellor Merkel explained, “We want the electricity of the future to be safe, reliable and economically viable…We have to follow a new path.”

If Italy, Germany, and Switzerland are successful in their endeavors to forge a new world out of green energy, one that is still economically successful, maybe the rest of the world will follow. Many countries are skeptical of the values of rejecting nuclear power in favor of green energy, but if the industrial giant of Germany can prove that the transition can be completed successfully, maybe those skeptical voices will disappear.

Nuclear power plants have proved disastrous investments – although accidents are isolated and fairly rare, the three that have happened in the past few decades have had consequences harmful enough to indicate that investments in green energy are much more sound.

The transition will be difficult, no doubt, but rather than think of short-term profits and loss, think of the benefits that would redound to future generations because of said transition. As Chancellor Merkel asserted, “We want to remain an industrial nation and sustain growth. But we want to organize that growth so that we guarantee quality of life for coming generations as well.”

 

Reach Staff Columnist Cara Palmer here or follow her on Twitter.



 

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