Antinuclear

How Germany steadily and rationally turned against nuclear energy

From Advocates to Enemies: Nuclear Decline in Germany World Policy Blog May 10, 2012 -By Paul Hockenos   The fact that Germany, in the aftermath of the 2011 Fukushima disaster, redoubled its efforts to phase out nuclear energy has nothing to do with hysteria or postwar angst. On the contrary, a majority of Germans, including much of the political class, has been unconvinced of its merits since the early 1980s; the source of this anti-atom consensus lies not in emotional populism but rather in the persuasive, fact-based arguments of a powerful, grassroots social movement that has long included nuclear physicists and other bona fide experts.

During this four decade long campaign, start-up think tanks, academic scholars, and professionals with nuclear industry experience, among others, were instrumental in convincing most Germans of three main points: nuclear energy is a high-risk technology; renewable energies are viable; and there is no fail-safe way to dispose of radioactive waste.

Of the many misconceptions that cloud the perception of Germany’s energy stands, one is that Germany is somehow on its own in Europe, on the fringe of the continent’s mainstream. In fact, Ireland, Austria, and Norway had dismissed the nuclear option years ago. Greece, Portugal, Italy, and Denmark don’t and will never have atomic power plants. Like Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Belgium are in the process of phasing out nuclear power. Spain has banned the construction of new reactors.

In terms of popular opinion, over 80 percent of Germans oppose nuclear energy, a figure that climbed higher in the wake of Fukushima and is comparatively high in Europe. But 90 percent of Austrians object to the nuclear option, and Austria even has no-nukes enshrined in its constitution. In 2011, 94 percent of Italians voted against nuclear power in a popular referendum. And then, of course, there are the pro-nuclear nations, led by France and the Czech Republic, where 68 and 67 percent of its citizens, respectively, are in favor of it. (In the U.S. the figure is 70 percent.) Poland is currently initiating a nuclear program.

Rather, what makes Germany stand out among the nuclear skeptical nations is, firstly, that it is an industrial heavy weight of global renown. Germany’s isn’t a mild-mannered service-based economy, but one based on unusually energy-intensive industries: automobiles, heavy machinery, chemicals, engineering, and electrical appliances. Secondly, Germany has plainly stated that it will kick the nuclear habit while meeting EU climate goals and weaning itself off fossil fuels. Germany’s ambition, complete with a strategy to do so, is to switch completely to renewables after 2050 without jeopardizing its industry. This project, called the Energiewende, or “energy transition,” is what makes Germany unique–and has the world watching it……

Germany’s Energiewende isn’t the reaction of a spooked people to Fukushima. Indeed, it has arguably been part of Berlin’s energy agenda since the early 1990s. Now every political party says it’s on board. Opinion polls show Germans convinced of a future based on renewables, and even willing to pay slightly higher energy bills to pay for it.

The accidents in Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and Fukushima galvanized public opinion. But the grassroots campaign begun in Wyhl kept up the pressure. Its ability to shun sectarian politics and constantly reinvent itself kept it vital. Today, groups like Campact, a nationwide anti-nuke group, relies heavily on the Internet and social media. Campact has over 500,000-address e-mail list that enables it to put together demonstrations at record speed. It is also a platform for people to be engaged via the internet, through mass petitions, email campaigns, and blogs. The nationwide group Ausgestrahlt focuses on supporting the network of smaller, local groups across the country with campaigning materials and ideas, enabling them with more clout.  X-tausendmal quer specializes in blockades of nuclear waste transports, while another Gorleben-based group, Castor Shottern, takes civil disobedience a step further by sabotaging the train tracks along which nuclear waste transports run.

And today there’s even another new constituency: the green-collar workers of the renewable energy industry. They’re conspicuous at demonstrations in their work clothes and badges, yet not out of place. The almost 400,000 clean energy jobs in Germany, many in the down-trodden eastern states, and the promise of more is another sound argument in the quiver of Energiewende proponents. http://www.worldpolicy.org/blog/2012/05/10/advocates-enemies-nuclear-decline-germany

May 11, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Uncategorized