“The German government said Monday it intends to phase-out nuclear power over the next decade, and immediately close eight of its oldest and most glitch-prone reactors.
Details of how the government would plug any resulting electricity shortfall or meet its ambitious climate protection targets remained scarce, and the proposals were met with criticism from opposition parties and warnings of job losses and price increases from industry groups.
The decision, to close all Germany’s nuclear plants by 2022, is effectively a return to an agreement made in 2002 by a center-left Social Democrat-Green coalition. It also marks a drastic u-turn by Chancellor Angela Merkel, after her government late last year agreed to extend nuclear plants’ operating lives, stretching the era of nuclear power in Germany into the 2030s.” Read more…