Germany to Completely Shut Down Nuke Plants in 2018

After reaching an agreement to shut down nuclear powerplants which have reached the end of their life span in last June, German government and energy industries have been discussing about a detailed plan related to the implementation of the agreement.

Tritin, secretary of energy, explained the background by saying ``This bill or plan has been prepared considering the hazards of operating nuclear powerplants and public safety issues.``

The German government made it clear that it would ask their leaders in each state and environmental protection organizations to collect their opinions before the government submits the bill to the Congress. Among Western countries, Germany is the first country that revealed its plans to shut down nuclear powerplants.

This move to close nuclear powerplants began in 1997 when the Green Party and the Social Democratic Party formed a coalition government in the general election. Making the agreement of forming a coalition government, the Green Party who pledged to shut down nuclear powerplants demanded a completed closing of nuclear powerplants by 2004.

In response to this demand, the Social Democratic Party wanted the deadline to be extended to 30 years and Germany`s four major electric companies wanted 40 years.

There were 30 activating nuclear powerplants at the time, but just one of them has closed during the three years of talk for shutting down.

In 1999 when the Social Democratic Party insisted that early shutting down is unrealistic, the Green Party yielded the deadline to 2020, threatening to depart from the coalition if the proposal is rejected.

For this reason, prime minister Schroeder began to persuade major electric companies, and they reached a final agreement of gradual shutting down in last June.

The portion of nuclear power generation occupies about 30% of the country`s total demand. Germany has decided to make up for the shortage of electric supply by importing from neighboring countries and constructing hydroelectric powerplants. In terms of the long-term plan, they decided to develop an environment-friendly substitute energy resources.

Companies estimate the cost for nuclear material disposal at more than 52 billion dollars and expect to see more than 150,000 job losses.

Shin Chi-Young higgledy@donga.com