A page turns in Germany. This April 15, the first European economy definitively abandons nuclear power. Its last three power plants – Neckarwestheim 2 in Baden-Württemberg, Isar 2 in Bavaria and Emsland in Lower Saxony – will be deactivated. With a net installed capacity of 4 GW, they helped produce 6.3% of the country’s electricity last year.
” It’s the end of an era “, confirms Christof Timpe, from the Öko-Institut, a research center specializing in the environment and born out of the anti-nuclear movement, which made its name in particular with the famous sticker “Atomkraft? Nein danke”, a stylized red sun, smiling with closed eyes, on a yellow background. “I myself come from this movement and am very happy with this step, even if our neighbors continue to use nuclear power”, confides this specialist. Since 1961, Germany will have commissioned 110 commercial nuclear installations which, at the height of their activity, produced a third of the country’s electricity.
“It is the end of a struggle that has marked the political debate for several decades, notes Achim Brunnengräber of the Free University of Berlin. Starting from a small movement, this opposition has spread to certain NGOs, to the party of the Greens (Alliance 90/Les Verts) and has become institutionalized.. Stephen Milder, historian at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich, confirms: “For the militants of the first hour, it is a very good day even if their fight went, at the beginning, beyond the only question of nuclear energy”, (in particular the pacifist fight against nuclear weapons, editor’s note).
The clash of Chernobyl and Fukushima
The nuclear accidents of 1979 in the United States and Chernobyl in 1986 gave it a new impetus with demonstrations during the passage of “beaver” transports (of nuclear materials), as well as in Gorleben (Lower Saxony) chosen, a time , as a radioactive waste disposal site. These accidents also mark a turning point for the Social Democratic Party which, on its return to power in 1998 with the ecologists, will enshrine in law the exit from nuclear power with, in parallel, the development of renewable energies.
This is the start of the famous “Energiewende”, or German energy transition model. In 2010, the Christian Democrat Angela Merkel and her liberal partners return to the end of nuclear power, but they will turn around the following year after the Fukushima accident. “The catastrophic events in Japan are a rupture for the world and a rupture personally”, recognized this physicist by training. The exit from nuclear power is then definitively recorded. The industrial giant Siemens, which had participated in the definition of the Franco-German third generation reactor, the EPR, announces that it is definitively abandoning this field.
“The Germans associate nuclear power with danger, between accidents and the unresolved question of waste, recalls Achim Brunnengräber, from the Free University of Berlin. Germany does not have nuclear weapons and the strategic dimension is absent from the debates. The exit from nuclear power is also linked to a change in the more global energy model. »
Far right and liberals oppose it
Economic circles, they have had trouble swallowing this snake. “There is no complete consensus in the energy sector on this subject, explained Christof Timpe. This is a political decision, supported by a majority of the population. » Some energy companies do not hide their bitterness. Leonhard Birnbaum, head of E.ON, recently called the end of nuclear power a“strategic error” in this time of war in Ukraine and the fight against climate change.
The invasion of Ukraine, the end of imports of cheap Russian hydrocarbons, the fear of power cuts and the revival of nuclear power in other countries of the world have indeed given new arguments to the proponents of this energy. across the Rhine, such as the extreme right of the AfD and the liberals of the FDP. Even the Christian Democrats, now in opposition, plead for the non-dismantling of the last three power stations. “The exit from nuclear power is confirmed but the debate remains open”, constate l’historien Stephen Milder.
Manuel Frondel, professor of energy economics at RWI Essen, is one of those who regret this political decision. He is in favor of promoting research and development of new 4th generation power plants, with the most stringent safety standards, even if he considers their construction in Germany “unrealistic”.
“It would take a huge blackout and a radical change of opinion in the population, he admits. Either way, the shutdown comes at a very bad time, as electricity is currently scarce in Europe and demand will increase with heat pumps and e-mobility. Not to mention the advantages of nuclear energy in the fight against global warming. »
Already 48% of electricity from renewable sources
Unlike France, the climate argument is struggling to convince across the Rhine, due to the small share of nuclear power in the energy mix and the link that has always been woven by environmentalists – the first to mention the fight against climate change – with the exit from nuclear power and the development of renewables. “It influenced the other parties,” recalls Stephen Milder.
In fact, the German energy model is based on phasing out nuclear and coal ” ideally “ in 2030, as well as on the development of wind, solar and geothermal energy. The country already produces 48% of its electricity from these clean energies and wants to reach 80% by 2030. A challenge that requires the installation of four or five new wind turbines per day and the equivalent of more than 40 plots of land. football of solar panels per day, as energy minister Robert Habeck acknowledges.
The German population approves of the end of nuclear power
To do this, Berlin must reduce local resistance, speed up administrative procedures, build major power transmission lines as well as new so-called “back-up” power stations, capable of running on hydrogen and intended to replace the very polluting coal or gas-fired power stations that compensate for the intermittency of renewable energy installations. “A risky path, Dear Manuel Frondel. I don’t think we can cover, even remotely, our electricity consumption by developing renewable energies. We will have to import electricity massively. »
The supporters of the Energiewende also know the difficult task. “It will be difficult to achieve the climate protection targets for 2030, judge Christof Timpe, the Öko-Institut. But the most important thing is that the current government makes the right decisions and that the population supports these efforts. The war in Ukraine changed the situation. »
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Fifty-seven years of nuclear energy
1966. Commissioning of the first German nuclear power plant.
1998. Arrival in power of a coalition between the SPD and the Greens, which is negotiating an exit from nuclear power. In 2002, this led to the definitive vote on a law prohibiting any new construction of power stations and fixed the operating life of the power stations for thirty-two years.
2010. The new majority between Christian Democrats and Liberals extends the operating life of power plants by twelve years without calling into question the exit from nuclear power, considered a transition technology.
2011. After the tsunami that destroyed the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan, Chancellor Angela Merkel decided to close all nuclear power plants by 2022 at the latest.
2023. Definitive exit from nuclear power.