majority backs nuclear time since fukushima

“There was a shortage of milk, and people here paid more - double the price - for milk produced before a certain date.” “I was only 9, but I remember Chernobyl,” Löffler says. Germany’s complicated history with nuclear energyĬhristoph Löffler was just 9 years old when a reactor melted down at the Soviet nuclear facility near Pripyat in what is now northern Ukraine. Why would a country that stands out for its environmentalist bona fides - where the reality of climate change and the push for renewable energy sources has been embraced by all major political parties - choose coal over nuclear in the midst of an energy crisis?Ī clearer understanding of Germany’s energy choices may help other countries, including the US, better assess the risks and rewards of nuclear power. Yet this is not the way the country has gone, and there has been relatively little public protest or political handwringing over the increased use of coal-generated power to address its deficits. No less a climate-change evangelist than Greta Thunberg has argued publicly that, for the planet’s sake, Germany should prioritize the use of its existing nuclear facilities over burning coal. Meanwhile, the country’s use of nuclear-generated electricity fell by almost 50 percent during the same period. That represents an 8 percent increase compared to 2021.

According to figures from Germany’s Federal Statistical Office, one-third of Germany’s electricity in 2022 was generated from coal.

brown coal), and generally ramping up its use of fossil fuels to address energy shortages brought on by the conflict in Ukraine. What’s harder to square is that as Germany was finalizing its plans to shutter its remaining nuclear plants, it was also reactivating old coal-fired power facilities, mining more lignite (a.k.a. It’s not all that odd that environmentally conscious Germans would support finishing off the country’s long-dying nuclear sector. And, despite the president’s efforts, recent Gallup data suggest this is still the case: Less than half of Democrats back nuclear, compared to 62 percent of Republicans. For countries that want to mitigate climate change and reduce air pollution, he says that nuclear energy should be embraced - at least until better options come along.īut environmental advocacy groups and left-leaning American voters have traditionally opposed nuclear power. “Nuclear is actually one of the cleanest and safest energy sources,” Kharecha says. Many countries are following the same path based on similar climate calculations, and some experts support this position.

In the United States, Gallop polls going back 20 years have found that Americans are generally split on the subject of nuclear energy, though support for nuclear has swelled in recent years.įor its part, the White House has invested heavily in sustaining the country’s nuclear infrastructure, and President Joe Biden has also touted nuclear as an important component in the country’s quest for carbon neutrality. “Anti-nuclear sentiment in Germany is widespread and longstanding, and it’s highly correlated with concern for climate change,” says Pushker Kharecha, deputy director of the Climate Science, Awareness, and Solutions Program at Columbia University’s Earth Institute. Nuclear energy is a controversial topic in most places, but Germany is notable for its historic antipathy toward the technology. “We are embarking on a new era of energy production,” said Steffi Lemke, a Greens member and Germany’s federal minister for the environment and nuclear safety, in a CNN interview following the plant closures. While not everyone in Germany supported the closures, many here - particularly supporters of the Greens (Die Grünen), one of the world’s strongest and most powerful environmentally focused political parties - viewed the event as the happy culmination of a decades-long battle to rid the country of nuclear energy. FREIBURG, Germany - Earlier this spring, the German government closed down the country’s three remaining nuclear power plants - the last vestiges of what was once a large domestic fleet.

Majority backs nuclear time since fukushima