nuclear-news

UK sacrificing renewable energy development in order to have nuclear power

UK’s faith in nuclear power threatens renewables, says German energy expert, Jochen Flasbarth, who is advising German government on its nuclear, phase-out, says UK’s wind and solar industry will suffer Guardian UK 29 Nov 11

Building new nuclear power stations will make it harder for the UK to
switch to renewable energy, said one of the top German officials
leading the country’s nuclear energy phase-out.

Germany said shortly after the Fukushima disaster in March that it
would phase out its nuclear plants by 2022, while the UK is planning
to build eight new nuclear plants as well as massively increase the
amount of energy generated from wind power.

But Jochen Flasbarth, president of the Environmental Protection Agency
in Germany, who advises the German government, said: “We are not
missionaries, and every country will have to find its own way in
energy policy, but it is obvious that nuclear plants are too
inflexible and cannot sufficiently respond to variations in wind or
solar generation, only gas [power stations] do.”

Flasbarth robustly defended Germany’s nuclear phase-out, saying it
would be smoother than critics think. “The phase-out is doable and I
don’t expect unsolvable problems,” he told the Guardian in an
interview. “I wonder why Germany feels the pressure to defend its
decision, but not the countries who stick to nuclear energy, which has
been proved to be unsustainable.”

He said he did not expect power shortages and it would not be
necessary to import nuclear power from neighbouring countries such as
the Czech Republic. “During the last month, there was no need for
electricity imports due to capacity shortfalls in Germany. Short-term
imports were merely market-driven,” he said.

Nuclear power is deeply unpopular in Germany, with polls showing
around 80% of Germans backing Angela Merkel’s decision this year to
phase out nuclear faster than planned..

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/nov/28/nuclear-uk-renewable-energy?newsfeed=true

November 30, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | general