Germany decides to abandon nuclear power by 2022

BERLIN—Germany’s government said Monday it will shut down all the country’s nuclear power plants by 2022. The decision, prompted by Japan’s nuclear disaster, will make Germany the first major industrialized nation to go nuclear-free in years.

It also completes a remarkable about-face for Chancellor Angela Merkel’s center-right government, which only late last year pushed through a plan to extend the life span of the country’s 17 reactors — with the last scheduled to go offline around 2036.

But Merkel now says industrialized, technologically advanced Japan’s helplessness in the face of the Fukushima disaster made her rethink the risks of the technology.

Overcoming nuclear power within a decade will be a challenge for Europe’s biggest economy, but it will be feasible and ultimately give Germany a competitive advantage in the renewable energy era, Merkel said.

“As the first big industrialized nation, we can achieve such a transformation toward efficient and renewable energies, with all the opportunies that brings for exports, developing new technologies and jobs,” Merkel told reporters.

While Germany already was set to abandon nuclear energy eventually, the decision — which still requires parliamentary approval — dramatically speeds up that process.

“We don’t only want to renounce nuclear energy by 2022, we also want to reduce our Co2 emissions by 40 percent and double our share of renewable energies, from about 17 percent today to then 35 percent,” the chancellor said.

The country’s energy supply chain “needs a new architecture,” necessitating huge efforts in boosting renewable energies, efficiency gains and overhauling the electricity grid, Merkel said.

The cornerstones of Germany’s energy policy will be a safe and steady power supply that doesn’t rely on imports, affordable prices that don’t disadvantage industry or heavily burden consumers, and making sure that Germany’s carbon emissions keep diminishing, Merkel said.

The 2022 deadline is fixed, with no conditions attached that might allow a policy reverse, Environment Minister Norbert Roettgen added.

Germany’s seven oldest reactors, already taken off the grid pending safety inspections following the March catastrophe at Japan’s Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant, will remain offline permanently, he said. The plants accounted for about 40 percent of the country’s nuclear power capacity.

The determination of Germany, the world’s fourth-largest economy, to gradually replace its nuclear power with renewable energy sources makes it stand out among the world’s major industrialized nations.

Among other Group of Eight nations, only Italy has abandoned nuclear power, which was voted down in a referendum after the 1986 Chernobyl disaster — leading it to shut down its three operating reactors.

Until March — before the seven reactors were taken offline — just under a quarter of Germany’s electricity was produced by nuclear power, about the same share as in the U.S.

Many Germans have vehemently opposed nuclear power since Chernobyl sent radioactivity over the country. Tens of thousands of people repeatedly took to the streets after Fukushima to urge the government to shut all reactors quickly.

A decade ago, a center-left government first penned a plan to abandon the technology for good by 2021 because of its inherent risks. But Merkel’s government last year amended the plan to extend the plants’ lifetime by an average of 12 years — a decision that became a political liability after Fukushima was hit by Japan’s March 11 earthquake and tsunami disaster.

“This is a great day of relief for all opponents of nuclear energy in Germany,” said Sigmar Gabriel, leader of the opposition Social Democrats. “Today, our political opponents are forced … to accept our policies.”

However, shutting down yet more nuclear reactors will require billions of euros (dollars) of investment in renewable energies, more natural gas power plants and an overhaul of the country’s electricity grid.

Germany, usually a net energy exporter, has at times had to import energy since March, with the seven old reactors shut down and others temporarily taken off the grid for regular maintenance work.

Still, the agency overseeing its electricity grid said Friday that the country will remain self-sufficient.

Environmental groups welcomed Berlin’s decision.

“The country is throwing its weight behind clean renewable energy to power its manufacturing base and other countries like Britain should take note,” said Robin Oakley, Greenpeace UK’s campaigns director.

Germany’s industry umbrella organization said the government must not allow the policy changes to lead to an unstable power supply or rising electricity prices, both of which would affect the country’s competitiveness.

“Transforming the energy sector is a hugely demanding project,” said Hans-Peter Keitel, the president of the Federation of German Industries.

He urged the government not to set the nuclear exit date of 2022 in stone, but to agree on a date that would be adjustable if problems arise in the coming years.

Germany’s decision broadly follows the conclusions of a government-mandated commission on the ethics of nuclear power, which delivered recommendations on how to abolish the technology within a decade on Saturday, and presented them Monday.

“Fukushima was a dramatic experience, seeing there that a high-technology nation can’t cope with such a catastrophe,” said Matthias Kleiner, the commission’s co-chairman. “Nuclear power is a technology with too many inherent risks to inflict it on us or our children.”

The shares of Germany’s four nuclear utility companies were down Monday. The biggest of them, E.ON AG and RWE AG, slipped by about 2 percent.

Neighboring Switzerland, where nuclear power produces 40 percent of electricity, also announced last week that it plans to shut down its reactors gradually once they reach their average lifespan of 50 years — which would mean taking the last plant off the grid in 2034.

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Geir Moulson in Berlin, Malin Rising in Stockholm, Colleen Barry in Milan and Cassandra Vinograd in London contributed reporting.