Germany closed all nuclear power plants by 2022

On May 30, German Environment Minister Norbert Roettgen announced that by 2022 all nuclear power plants in the country would be shut down. Thus, Germany will become the first major industrial power to abandon nuclear power.

The decision comes after a meeting of ruling coalition leaders headed by Chancellor Angela Merkel. Mr. Rottgen added that the seven oldest reactors, which had been temporarily shut down, along with the Kruemmel nuclear power plant, would not continue to function.

Six other nuclear power plants will be closed by 2021 and the last three will be closed by 2022, according to Rottgen.

Nuclear power plant in Germany (Photo: wn.com ).

In Germany, after the disaster at Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan, there were many large protests against nuclear power. Soon after, Chancellor Angela Merkel formed a panel to assess nuclear power in Germany after the disaster.

It is known that many other countries have reviewed the strategy of developing nuclear power, towards the source of clean, safe and sustainable energy. On May 25, the Swiss government also decided to stop all plans to build a new nuclear power plant and step by step cancel 5 existing plants.

Meanwhile, some countries still insist on pursuing this technology, like France, which has 80% of electricity as nuclear energy.

The European Union on May 25 agreed to begin testing the safety of 143 nuclear plants in member countries. The inspection will consider the impact of aircraft explosions and possible terrorist attacks. However, the test is still based on voluntariness.

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