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latest news on the uranium/nuclear industry

Germany doing well with nuclear phaseout – despite the nuclear lobby’s lies about this

Busting the carbon and cost myths of Germany’s nuclear exit, Guardian UK  Damian Carrington, 23 May 12  Critics of the atomic phase-out said energy emissions, costs and imports would all rise. They were wrong.  it’s worth taking a look at what actually happens when you phase out nuclear power in a large, industrial nation.

That is what Germany chose to do after the Fukushima nuclear disaster, closing eight plants immediately – 7GW – and another nine by 2022. The shrillest critics predicted blackouts, which was always daft and did not happen.

But more serious critics worried that the three things at the heart of th eenergy and climate change debate – carbon, cost and security of supply – would all head in the wrong direction. Here in Berlin, I have found they were wrong on every count. Read more »

May 24, 2012 Posted by | Germany, renewable | Leave a Comment

German government working carefully on phasing out nuclear power

Germany beefs up monitoring of nuclear shutdown, Google News By JUERGEN BAETZ, Associated Press  24 May 12, BERLIN (AP) — The German government will more closely oversee the country’s move from nuclear power to renewable energy, Chancellor Angela Merkel said Wednesday — a mammoth 10-year project for Europe’s biggest economy that has been going slowly so far.

Merkel said she will be meeting with all of Germany’s 16 state governors twice a year to take stock of the transformation’s progress and shortcomings, stressing that everything must be done to avoid blackouts and ensure affordable energy. Read more »

May 24, 2012 Posted by | Germany, politics | Leave a Comment

Germany to be nuclear free within 10 years

 includes VIDEO  http://www.todaysthv.com/news/article/210528/288/Germany-plans-to-go-nuclear-free-within-a-decade   Germany plans to go nuclear free within a decade, May 10, 2012  ”…. Protest against nuclear energy in Germany began shortly after the Fukushima disaster in 2011 and Berlin reacted. After a safety review Angela Merkel’s government decided to shut down eight of Germany’s 17 reactors immediately and abandon nuclear energy altogether by 2022. She says, “We want to make sure that our power supply is safe,” Merkel said. “But at the same time it must be reliable.”

Germany’s answer is renewables! Aside from solar power, the country embarked on an ambitious quest to build dozens of off shore wind parks with thousands of turbines in the North and Baltic Seas. Most of the assembly happens in the northern town of Bremerhaven and local officials say the rush into renewables has led to an economic boom here. Nils Schnorrenberger says, “We had an unemployment rate of 25 per cent six years ago. Now it is 14 per cent and the companies gave 2000 people jobs just here in Bremerhaven.”..

. Ever since the Chernobyl disaster, Germans have had a troubled relationship with
nuclear energy with regular protests against new plants and nuclear waste transports. Since Fukushima, however, the country’s decision to quit atomic power seems irreversible, even in the face of challenges and uncertainties ahead. http://www.todaysthv.com/news/article/210528/288/Germany-plans-to-go-nuclear-free-within-a-decade

May 11, 2012 Posted by | Germany, renewable | Leave a Comment

The history of Germany’s anti nuclear movement

The Germans also had an anti-nuke party as of 1980, namely the Greens, who carried the concerns of the mass movement into the national parliament, the Bundestag. No other country in the world has had a force so determined and influential in taking on the powerful atomic energy lobby. 

From Advocates to Enemies: Nuclear Decline in Germany World Policy Blog May 10, 2012 -By Paul Hockenos    “……….it wasn’t until the early 1970s when protests broke out in Germany’s southwestern-most corner that Germans began looking twice at the nuclear power facilities and waste repositories in their backyards. The anti-nuclear energy movement was born in the wine-growing region of the Black Forest abutting the borders of Switzerland and France’s Alsace-Loraine. There, in the tiny hamlet of Wyhl, the area’s staunchly conservative farmers, joined by left-wing activists from the nearby university city of Freiburg, as well as concerned French and Swiss citizens, organized to stop the construction of a planned reactor.

The Wyhl coalition bore many of the characteristics that would define the movement for years to follow: It was locally led, politically diverse, and committed to non-violent civil disobedience. Initially, the farmers’ objection was that the steam clouds from the reactor’s cooling towers would block the sun light in their vineyards, not that radioactivity as such was a hazard. This changed as the community learned more about the health effects of low-level radiation, such as that produced by nuclear power plants on pregnant women in their vicinity.

Against all odds, the Wyhl coalition forced the utility giant to back down and scrap its plans. Read more »

May 11, 2012 Posted by | Germany, history | Leave a Comment

The world watches as renewables succeed in Germany, as nuclear power fades

A vast majority of Germans have made up their minds on the need to phase out nuclear. And what happens in Germany will be a major indicator for other countries…..  The world is watching Germany’s Energiewende.”
 Germany: Fighting Climate Change And Phasing Out Nuclear Power Are Two Sides Of The Same Coin Think Progress,   Apr 27, 2012  by Arne Jungjohann Recently, the editorial board of the Washington Post asked if the world can fight global warming without nuclear power, looking to Germany and Japan for the answer.

Both countries are known for a nuclear shutdown path. In Japan, only one of the 54 nuclear reactors currently remains in operation. Germany has closed eights reactors following the nuclear catastrophe of Fukushima in March 2011 and the remaining nine are scheduled to be closed by 2022.

That obviously must lead to rising emissions, the Post claims. …. If you look at the most recent emissions data, however, the opposite is happening. Germany reduced its carbon emissions in 2011 by 2.1 percent despite the nuclear phase out. How can that be? Read more »

May 2, 2012 Posted by | Germany, renewable | Leave a Comment

Germany needs to make sure that nuclear companies pay for nuclear decommissioning

Germany open to nuclear shutdown fund – minister  Greenpeace calls for state to run nuclear dismantling fund

* Environment minister says Greenpeace proposal can be examined

* Major utilities reject idea

DUESSELDORF, Germany, April 11 (Reuters) - Germany would consider ringfencing billions of euros to be put aside by utilities for disposing of radioactive waste, the environment minister said, to ensure decommissioning of the country’s nuclear power plants is completed decades from now. He was speaking on Wednesday in response to a call from environmental group Greenpeace that wants the government to administer some of the money earmarked for nuclear decommissioning.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s decision last year, following Japan’s nuclear plant disaster, to phase out nuclear power by 2022 has thrown big utilities on the defensive, weakening their finances and forcing them to rethink their business models.

Germany’s top four nuclear operators – E.ON, RWE , EnBW and Swedish’s Vattenfall – are footing the bill to dismantle the plants and dispose of radioactive waste. They have already made provisions of more than 30 billion euros ($39.3 billion).

Managing the disposal of waste will take decades after the last nuclear plant is due to shut in 2022 and Greenpeace fears that the companies may not be able to honour their obligations in the future or could try to wriggle out of them.

Parking the companies’ money in a separate state-run fund would protect German taxpayers should one or more of the firms become insolvent, Greenpeace said. “This is an idea that can be examined,” Environment Minister Norbert Roettgen told Reuters on Wednesday, adding it was clear that the operators of nuclear plants were responsible for dismantling them. ”We need to look at whether a combined fund is a better solution than relying on individual responsibility,” he added.

Greenpeace has also called for provisions to be raised to 44 billion euros.  http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/04/11/germany-nuclear-idUSL6E8FB2XT20120411

April 12, 2012 Posted by | decommission reactor, Germany | Leave a Comment

Success of solar photovoltaic power is worrying utility companies

Why power generators are terrified of solar http://www.crikey.com.au/2012/03/27/why-generators-are-terrified-of-solar/   Crikey.com by Giles Parkinson, of RenewEconomy, 28 March 12,  ”….. the merit order effect and the impact that solar is having on electricity prices in Germany; and why utilities there and elsewhere are desperate to try to rein in the growth of solar PV in Europe. It may also explain why Australian generators are fighting so hard against the extension of feed-in tariffs in this country….. that solar PV is not just licking the cream off the profits of the fossil fuel generators — as happens in Australia with a more modest rollout of PV — it is in fact eating their entire cake…..

Deutsche Bank solar analyst Vishal Shah noted in a report last month that EPEX data was showing solar PV was cutting peak electricity prices by up to 40%, a situation that utilities in Germany and elsewhere in Europe were finding intolerable. “With Germany adopting a drastic cut, we expect major utilities in other European countries to push for similar cuts as well,” Shah noted.

Analysts elsewhere said one quarter of Germany’s gas-fired capacity may be closed, because of the impact of surging solar and wind capacity. Enel, the biggest utility in Italy, which had the most solar PV installed in 2011, highlighted its exposure to reduced peaking prices when it said that a €5/MWh fall in average wholesale prices would translate into a one-third slump in earnings from the generation division……

 

March 28, 2012 Posted by | Germany, renewable | Leave a Comment

Utility losing interest in investing in nuclear power

E.ON says its commitment to nuclear is fading   LONDON, March 14 (Reuters) - German utility E.ON , which together with rival RWE plans to build new nuclear plants in Britain, said on Wednesday its appetite for investing in nuclear power had slowed down.

“Our appetite to boost nuclear with great energy has become smaller,” said board member Klaus-Dieter Maubach during the company’s 2011 results conference….   time and cost overruns at new nuclear plants in Finland and France…..  E.ON posted a net loss of 2.22 billion euros in 2011 as it was hit by Germany’s decision to shut down its oldest nuclear plants in the wake of Japan’s Fukushima accident and losses in its gas business.

March 15, 2012 Posted by | business and costs, Germany | Leave a Comment

Germany’s prosperity with wind and solar feed-in tariffs

Energy production using fossil and nuclear fuels is penalised in Germany by virtue of the Renewable Energy Act, which guarantees higher prices for generators of electricity sourced from wind and solar through feed-in-tariffs.

Today Germany has over 150 million solar panels installed or 25,000MW,

Germany has the wind at its back, MATTHEW WRIGHT, ABC 9 FEB 2012, Germany is currently the world-leader in installing renewable energy THE recent clinching of a $1.9 billion Australian defence contract by the Germans illustrates to carbon price knockers that they need look no further for proof that an economy which relies on renewable energy can outsmart one dependent on fossil fuels.

Germany’s electricity sector delivers 21 per cent of its power from renewable sources, such as the wind and the sun.  …..

what of Germany, which finds itself at the epicenter of the EU debt maelstrom?

How is it possible that a nation shouldering the lion’s share of bailing out Europe’s basket-case economies has its finances in the best shape ever in two decades?

The yearly German unemployment rate keeps falling and at 6.7 per cent  in January was the lowest since reunification. The Berlin based BGA Exporters and Wholesalers group estimated total German exports hit a record $US1.3 trillion last year.

This is hardly a picture of an economy that has been struggling under the impost of a carbon cost and renewable energy subsidies.

Energy production using fossil and nuclear fuels is penalised in Germany by virtue of the Renewable Energy Act, which guarantees higher prices for generators of electricity sourced from wind and solar through feed-in-tariffs.

The legislation has encouraged a phenomenal uptake of solar roof panels for a nation that hardly boasts sunny weather. ….

Critics who claim that pricing carbon using feed-in-tariffs, taxes or emissions trading is somehow linked to an underperforming economy and high jobless rates ought to be silenced by Germany’s success in bursting that myth.

And if the proof in the pudding is not enough for the naysayers, they could look to volumes of published material demonstrating that the early costs of encouraging renewable energy benefit an economy in a matter of years.
Respected energy experts Dr Wolfram Krewitt and Dr Joachim Nitsch’s published research while at the German Aerospace Centre that is regularly cited to drive home this point.

In a peer reviewed paper they wrote: “While the success of the German Renewable Energy Sources Act in supporting the use of renewable energy sources for electricity generation is widely acknowledged, it is partly criticised for imposing unjustified extra costs on society.

“[This] paper makes an attempt to estimate the external costs avoided in the German energy system due to the use of renewable energies for electricity generation, and to compare them against the compensation to be paid by grid operators for electricity from renewable energies according to the Renewable Energy Sources Act.

“… [R]esults clearly indicate that the reduced environmental impacts and related economic benefits do outweigh the additional costs for the compensation of electricity from renewable energies,” Krewitt and Nitsch concluded.

Another misleading argument renewable energy doubters like to peddle is that the rise in renewable energy use and the reduction in coal use is only possible in economies that also have a nuclear sector, to supply supposedly ‘reliable’ electricity when ‘the sun don’t shine and the wind don’t blow’.

Germany also recently burst this myth…..http://www.abc.net.au/environment/articles/2012/02/09/3426757.htm

February 9, 2012 Posted by | Germany, renewable | Leave a Comment

Court rules that Germany’s nuclear fuel tax is legal

EON, RWE Retreat After German Court Backs Nuclear Fuel Tax Bloomberg, By Stefan Nicola and Karin Matussek – Jan 12, 2012 EON AG (EOAN) and RWE AG (RWE), Germany’s biggest utilities, fell in Frankfurt trading after a court said the country’s nuclear fuel tax
didn’t break the law.
EON dropped 1.3 percent to 16.45 euros after a tax court in the state of Baden-Wuerttemberg upheld the levy in two interim rulings against plaintiff EnBW Energie Baden- Wuerttemberg AG, the country’s third-largest utility. RWE slipped 0.7 percent while EnBW slid 2.6 percent….

… Germany’s utilities are cutting costs and selling assets to curb losses related to the government’s decision to exit nuclear power by 2022. The shutdown of the country’s eight oldest reactors, as well as the nuclear fuel tax, drafted in 2010, cut EON’s earnings by 2.3 billion euros ($3 billion) in 2011, Chief Financial Officer Marcus Schenck said in November.

The judges didn’t share the legal analysis by courts in Munich and Hamburg, which had ruled in favor of EON and RWE over the tax. The divergence in rulings will be resolved once Germany’s top tax court mades its judgement.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-01-12/eon-rwe-retreat-after-german-court-backs-nuclear-fuel-tax.html

January 13, 2012 Posted by | Germany, Legal | Leave a Comment

Solar energy boom in Germany helps lower prices

German Solar Boom Continues, As Subsidies Disappear, German Solar Stays On Top, Green Chip Stocks, By Abhishek Shah, January 8th, 2012 The German Solar Energy Market is biggest in the world and has installed the largest number of solar panels for the last few years. 2012 promises to be no different with Germany again set to the biggest solar market for solar panel manufacturers though Italy would give good competition.

The German Solar Subsidy program has been the best in the world unlike the start and stop feed in tariff programs of Spain,Czech,UK,Australia and other places. A stable step in cut of feed in tariffs has helped solar energy prices coming down by more than 50% in the last few years though demand has only increased.

The influx of cheap solar panels from China has let the December 2012 explode to almost 2-3 GW according to the German solar association BSW. The high rates of return of over 10% due to super cheap Chinese solar panels at 80-90c/watt has been the major reason for the explosion in demand which could be the biggest month in Germany ever. While German Solar Market has remained robust as ever,the German solar panel producers like Solon, Sunways have been vanquished with a number of major solar companies failing and getting acquired. The Asian solar companies have been the major beneficiaries of this demand growth in Germany and Europe.

The massive rise in demand will imply that according to the EEG ,there will be a 15% cut in July 2012 after a 15% cut in January 2011. This would bring the solar FIT prices quite low and provide a restraint to the galloping German solar energy installations which is reaching more than 25 GW . http://www.greenchipstocks.com/articles/german-solar-boom-continues/1475

January 10, 2012 Posted by | Germany, renewable | 1 Comment

Renewable energy: Germany shows the way in new industrial revolution

Feldheim has zero unemployment ..

the technology already exists to allow people to be energy self-sufficient.

All eyes on German renewable energy efforts SF Gate, By MELISSA EDDY, Associated Press, December 29, 2011 “……Feldheim, a village of just 145 people, is already putting into practiceGermany’s vision of a future powered entirely by renewable energy……

In June, the nation passed the 20 percent mark for drawing electric power from a mix of wind, solar and other renewables. That compares with about 9 percent in the United States or Japan — both of which rely heavily on hydroelectric power, an energy source that has long
been used.

Expanding renewables depends on the right mix of resources, as well as government subsidies and investment incentive — and a willingness by taxpayers to shoulder their share of the burden. Germans currently pay a 3.5 euro cent per kilowatt-hour tax, roughly euro157 ($205) per year for a typical family of four, to support research and investment in and subsidize the production and consumption of energy from renewable sources.

That allows for homeowners who install solar panels on their rooftops, or communities like Feldheim that build their own biogas plants, to be paid above-market prices for selling back to the grid, to ensure that their investment at least breaks even……

Key to success of the transformation will be getting the nation’s powerful industries on board, to drive innovation in technology and create jobs. According to the Environment Ministry, overall investment in renewable energy production equipment more than doubled to euro29.4
billion ($38.44 billion) in 2011. Solid growth in the sector is projected through the next decade.

Some 370,000 people in Germany now have jobs in the renewable sector, more than double the number in 2004, a point used as proof that tax payers’ investment is paying off…… Read more »

December 30, 2011 Posted by | Germany, renewable | Leave a Comment

Fukushima residents learn at first hand the success of renewable energy projects

“It is important for the Japanese to realize that renewable energy can work on a large scale, and that people can make money from it,” said Yamamoto, 

Fukushima residents tour German renewable village; learn about non-nuclear energy sources Washington Post, By Associated Press,  November 30 FELDHEIM, Germany — A group of residents from the radiation-stricken area around Japan’s tsunami-hit nuclear reactors and a Tokyo actor are visiting Germany to learn how renewable energy could work in their
homeland…..

The group, organized and led by representatives of Greenpeace Japan, arrived Wednesday in the northeastern German village of Feldheim to learn how its 145 residents have taken advantage of the energy generated by a nearby windfarm and a biofuel plant that burns the
waste from a local pig farm to become an entirely self-sustaining, energy-positive village….. Read more »

December 1, 2011 Posted by | decentralised, Germany | Leave a Comment

Police violence does not deter huge anti nuclear protests in France and Germany

After 126 hours en route the 13th CASTOR delivery arrived for storage in Gorleben. The longest and most expensive delivery trip ever was caused by blockades of anti-nuclear activists, starting in France, continuing throughout Germany and culminating in the Gorleben area itself. 

After a trip of nearly five and a half days from Normandy in France the 13th delivery of processed German nuclear waste reached the “temporary” storage hall in Gorleben, a village in northwest Germany at about 10 pm on Monday   +++  Police perpetrated massive violence and breaches of the law against demonstrators, injuring at least 355 with truncheons, gas, dogs, horses and water cannons  +++   The 25,000 activists in the county were the second largest number ever   +++   Resistance against the shipment began in France where activists reported police violence against them but also an upsurge of anti-nuclear sentiment in the country   +++   In the Gorleben area resistance took the form of rail and road squats, chain-ons (one caused a 14-hour delay in the train journey) and massive road traffic disruptions, notably by farmers with tractors and agricultural machinery +++(See German Source here)

The activists’ first aid team of doctors and other health professionals report treating at least 355 injured by police, including serious head wounds and a suspected vertebral fracture from truncheoning. About a third of the injuries were caused by gas, the others mainly by truncheons. One person was run down by a horse, another had a tooth bashed out. Some police who’d been affected by their own mace or who were totally exhausted (10 cases) were also treated. In some cases the first aiders were denied access, especially during the trucking phase. Nine were ordered away from places. A doctor was not allowed to examine an arrested injured person. In another case first aiders were kettled while washing out people’s eyes. There were several cases of police violence against first aiders, e.g. one was injured by gas, another by several blows with a truncheon. A first aid camp in Laase was overrun linkby police, who threatened and insulted first aiders. The group is shocked by the high number of injured which will probably rise because not all the numbers are in yet. http://linksunten.indymedia.org/en/node/50895

November 30, 2011 Posted by | civil liberties, France, Germany, opposition to nuclear | Leave a Comment

Nuclear waste train delayed by huge anti nuclear protest

Thousands block nuke train in Germany  ABC 702 Sydney, 28 Nov 11German police battled thousands of anti-nuclear protesters trying to block a train carrying nuclear waste in the north of the country. The convoy taking the German waste is now nearing the end of its 1,200-kilometre journey from a reprocessing centre in north-western France to a storage facility in the northern German city of Dannenberg.

After stopping for 18 hours, including overnight, amid mass demonstrations, the train only covered about 30 kilometres in four hours. Thousands of activists swarmed the tracks along the route near Dannenberg and boasted that the train’s journey had now topped the 92-hour record set during a shipment one year ago. Read more »

November 28, 2011 Posted by | Germany, opposition to nuclear | Leave a Comment

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