As the Fukushima disaster unfolded in Japan in 2011, then-German Chancellor Angela Merkel made a dramatic decision that delighted her country’s anti-nuclear movement: all reactors would be ditched.
What couldn’t have been predicted was that Europe would find itself mired in one of the worst energy crises in its history. A decade later, the continent’s biggest economy has shut down almost all its capacity already. The rest will be switched off at the end of 2022 — at the worst possible time.
Wholesale power prices are more than four times what they were at the start of the coronavirus pandemic. Governments are having to take emergency action to support domestic and industrial consumers faced with crippling bills, which could rise higher if the tension over Ukraine escalates. The crunch has not only exposed Europe’s supply vulnerabilities, but also the entrenched cultural and political divisions over the nuclear industry and a failure to forge a collective vision.
I like how Europe == EU in this article /s
On the contrary, my country is planning to expand Nuclear Power as an energy source, but with American reactors which is a controversial decision.
We all will go by bycicle in the near future
Except Finland!
Yes, it’s sad, but electricity is just one part of total energy consumption in EU (besides private transport).
And household electricity consumption is even smaller
My cousin tells me Belgium is closing down nuclear plants and are planning to build gas-fired electricity plants. And apparently it’s the green party pushing that. LOLOLOL I’m sure he’s missing something but if true that’s dumb af
Interestingly, on 28 January, Macron had a telephone discussion with Putin and the published record refers to them discussing “practical aspects of bilateral cooperation, including nuclear energy”. No context given though.
paywall
France stayed on nuclear and now the state operator needs a bunch of money to repair its plants it really just was a decision to either shut them down and invest into other stuff, or wait for them to almost fall apart (bit of an exaggeration) and then repair them at a high cost
Thanks european greens for demonizing nuclear power for decades. Now contries that shut down nuclear plants are paying for their mistakes.
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As the Fukushima disaster unfolded in Japan in 2011, then-German Chancellor Angela Merkel made a dramatic decision that delighted her country’s anti-nuclear movement: all reactors would be ditched.
What couldn’t have been predicted was that Europe would find itself mired in one of the worst energy crises in its history. A decade later, the continent’s biggest economy has shut down almost all its capacity already. The rest will be switched off at the end of 2022 — at the worst possible time.
Wholesale power prices are more than four times what they were at the start of the coronavirus pandemic. Governments are having to take emergency action to support domestic and industrial consumers faced with crippling bills, which could rise higher if the tension over Ukraine escalates. The crunch has not only exposed Europe’s supply vulnerabilities, but also the entrenched cultural and political divisions over the nuclear industry and a failure to forge a collective vision.
I like how Europe == EU in this article /s
On the contrary, my country is planning to expand Nuclear Power as an energy source, but with American reactors which is a controversial decision.
We all will go by bycicle in the near future
Except Finland!
Yes, it’s sad, but electricity is just one part of total energy consumption in EU (besides private transport).
And household electricity consumption is even smaller
My cousin tells me Belgium is closing down nuclear plants and are planning to build gas-fired electricity plants. And apparently it’s the green party pushing that. LOLOLOL I’m sure he’s missing something but if true that’s dumb af
Interestingly, on 28 January, Macron had a telephone discussion with Putin and the published record refers to them discussing “practical aspects of bilateral cooperation, including nuclear energy”. No context given though.
paywall
France stayed on nuclear and now the state operator needs a bunch of money to repair its plants it really just was a decision to either shut them down and invest into other stuff, or wait for them to almost fall apart (bit of an exaggeration) and then repair them at a high cost
Thanks european greens for demonizing nuclear power for decades. Now contries that shut down nuclear plants are paying for their mistakes.
Ah yes, the weekly nuclear circlejerk thread.