GERMANY: Nuclear Power Fails, And Nobody Notices

Seven German nuclear plants have failed to generate any electricity this month due to technical breakdowns. They have about half the production capacity of Germany’s 17 nuclear reactors, but Germany did not suffer any power shortages.

The plants have between them a 9,000 megawatt (MW) capacity, but Germany generates more electricity than it consumes, and has been exporting some of the surplus to France, which is heavily dependent on nuclear power.
Chancellor Angela Merkel announced Jul. 1 that she would reverse the phasing out of nuclear power if her Christian Democratic Party wins the general election in September, and can form a coalition with the right-wing Liberal Democratic Party. Merkel presently rules in coalition with the SPD.

“Nuclear power remains an indispensable component of the German energy mix,” Merkel told the annual meeting of Atomforum, a group representing the four major German electricity providers, all operators of nuclear power plants.

But now the technical difficulties faced by nuclear power plants and the near redundancy of many appear to be strengthening the case for phasing them out.

IPS