Re:EU coal and gas collapse as wind and solar ascend
by sveme on Wednesday February 07, 2024 @03:02AM
(#39285815)
Gerhard Schröder did not care one bit about nuclear. He was in a coalition with the Greens who wanted to get rid of all nuclear power plants (whose fuel, by the way, mostly comes from Russia if I recall it correctly). He was Putin's best friend, though.
When Merkel took over, she stopped or delayed the closing down of the NPPs only to speed it up again significantly after Fukushima.
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Re:EU coal and gas collapse as wind and solar ascend
by candiodari on Wednesday February 07, 2024 @03:47AM
(#39286093)
> whose fuel, by the way, mostly comes from Russia if I recall it correctly
Currently, sure. But it's possible to load enough nuclear fuel from Australia on a rowboat to power Germany for 10 years (that would be about a suitcase).
Re:EU coal and gas collapse as wind and solar ascend
by fsflover on Wednesday February 07, 2024 @03:58AM
(#39286162)
An alternative explanation is the Greens didn't care about nuclear until Gerhard Schröder started to scare them with Fukushima.
Re:EU coal and gas collapse as wind and solar ascend
by flohofwoe on Wednesday February 07, 2024 @04:10AM
(#39286251)
That would have been quite a feat of divination. Schroeder was chancellor until 2005 while Fukushima happened in 2011 (during Merkel's government, which actually had pushed the nuclear exit further into the future at first and then rolled back that decision after Fukushima).
The important event was Chernobyl in 1986, from then on it was pretty much clear that Germany would leave nuclear power behind (and this was the Green party's main agenda, and what made them 'big' during the 90's).