“Dear Germany, please leave the nuclear power plants on the grid” – Open letter from environmentalists in Welt (translation in comment)

21 comments

  2. If they had been half as smart as they think they are, they would have figured this one out twice as fast.

  4. Seemed like such a knee jerk reaction to totally scrap/ halt nuclear energy because of Fukushima, especially with European gas supplies so heavily reliant on Russia.

  5. Great timing.

    3 of the remaining 6 reactors in Germany are about to go offline by the end of the year.
    The plans for the nuclear exit have existed for about 20 years.

    Which government is this letter addressed to?
    The one that has been voted out and won’t do anything substantial anymore or the one that hasn’t been formed yet?

  6. Many years too late. Publishing it right after Greens are to enter coalition? Wont even be deaf ears upon which this will fall. You should have done this the day they started considering it in 2011.

  8. People still talk about this?? A problem no one seems to adress is nuclear waste. Germanys problem is that they have no where to store it. If a place gets selected, it gets immidiatly protested by the people living close it, and rightly so.
    No one wants to live close to it no matter what you believe. Other problem is that you can not even export as no country wants it either. That is one of the main reasons nuclear was killed off.

    Germany is too small small for nuclear.

  9. I find it shocking that Germans seem to be some of the most grounded, realistic and smart people in the world but when it comes to nuclear power they think it works like Mr Burns hiding nuclear waste in trees.

  10. The most galling thing about Germany is how they are the biggest polluter in Europe, but the most self-righteous about environmentalism. They literally got rid of nuclear to burn brown coal, which is not just coal, ***but the dirtiest possible from of coal which is obtained by strip mining forest land.***

    I never want to hear another German say a word about environmentalism or climate change again until the entire country stops burning brown coal and strip mining all their natural areas. Most ridiculous hypocrites in Europe.

    This country is supposed to be the “leader” in environmentalism and stopping climate change. What a joke.

    https://www.flickr.com/photos/henkverheyen/32174260996/

  11. Nuclear energy is one of the greenest energies out there. Stupid politicians should stop listening to idiots and just build more nuclear plants instead. This is good new by the way.

  13. Welt…

    Welt is the German Fox news.

    The forums there are pure cancer. They are far away from the general political opinion on Reddit.

    And usually very opposed to anything remotely touched by any green agenda.

  15. Remember that Welt is part of “Axel Springer”. A very conservative media company.

    Their other big product is “BILD”. A tabloid.

  16. To make it quick:
    3 Sorts of energy:
    Fossile: Bad in the longrun, fucks everything up

    Nuclear: Bad in the very long run for a small area, and probably catastrophic missfunction for a small area, but better than fossile

    REnewable: No longterm fucks.

    Now the question is: Can we transition to renewable without having nuclear energy for a while? If you are not an expert on [Manpower] [Cost] [Material available] [Funds Available] [Timeframe] and so on and on and on and on to analyze wether a [Fossile => Renewable] transition is feasible, or wether we need to go [Fossile => Nuclear => Renewable]… don’t have such a strong opinion about this.

  17. You mean the same environmentalist that lobbied for DECADES for Germany to take those same plants off the grid? Why would we listen to them potheads now? They barely find two matching socks, they probably shouldn’t concern themselves with big issues like “How do you feed the massive power grid in Germany without destroying the climate?”

  18. Europe has no uranium mines anymore. Banking on nuclear means becoming the vassal of the countries who exports uranium. So no, nuclear won’t save us europeans. Don’t fool yourself, this industry will act as the tobacco industry to maintain his business.

  20. It is ridiculous that a country like Germany support and increase the use of coal, gas…. only for what ? Because Fukushima fears ?

    Check this page about live energetic mix by countries https://app.electricitymap.org/zone/DE

    Now Germany 36,42% of total energy is by coal with 23,4 GW, is the European leader right now !! And a 12,1% by gas. Awesome Germany is the country leader of Europe a example for others in industry, energy, investigation……. Germany has to think about a better sustainable future, based on renewables with a solid base in nuclear power (to compensate the renewables fluctuating ) in my personal view, Germany can´t depend of Russian gas and of third countries coal.

  21. No. Please don’t. E-Fuels made from renewable Energies round the world, saving “our” renewable energy in Hydrogen. A lot safer, a lot cleaner.

    Just overall better, because nuclear power doesn’t help with making oil heating co2 neutral, not every home owner/family can change their 5 year old oil burner and so on. EVs take way too long to be so widely adapted, that they make a real impact (10% of german Co2 Emissions are from cars!) and so on…

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