From KlimaNachrichten Redakteur

Article by Hans Ambos

OBITUARY

Last night (Saturday night) the end of nuclear power in Germany was brought about. The Emsland, Neckarwestheim 2 and Isar 2 nuclear power plants were the best reactors of their kind in the world. Anyone who understands something about the matter is shocked and mourns because of this senseless act of stupidity. They have not been able to end their term as planned, but they have been struck down far too early on the basis of an instruction (in March 2011) by Mrs. Merkel and now by Mr. Chancellor Scholz and Minister Habeck. The death sentence was unanimously handed down by a jury, the so-called “Ethics Committee”. This commission, assembled by Mrs. Merkel, gave the German government the recommendation to liquidate nuclear energy. Unencumbered by any expertise, former politicians such as Klaus Töpfer (CDU), head of the commission, trade unionists, a philosopher, a priest, a pastor and other Nixperts set the course for an “energy transition to nowhere” (H.W. Sinn). Nuclear energy did not have a defender. There was never a really strong nuclear lobby (initially the SPD), but there was a very strong anti-nuclear movement. That’s it for nuclear energy. This era is coming to an inglorious end.

Never again will a snow-white cooling tower flag indicate that electricity is being produced here for millions of people. In silent mourning, nuclear energy proponents bid farewell to the best way to produce electricity for Germany. The nuclear power plants reliably produced CO₂ day and night with high availability₂-free electricity. As recently as January 2023, these three nuclear power plants were still making a decisive contribution to bridging electricity shortages. Until yesterday, they supplied 10 million households with electricity. Produced 6% of the electricity! There is no trace of gratitude.

The best way to economically produce hydrogen in large quantities would have been to use nuclear energy. The use of night storage heaters in buildings where heat pumps do not make sense has also been taken away from us. In France, they have been doing both for a long time. It is heated in winter and air-conditioned in summer with nuclear power. In the future, hydrogen will be produced directly next to the nuclear power plants.

Together with nuclear power, research and development will be buried. Germany has suffered a complete loss of competence in nuclear matters. The dual-fluid reactor, conceived by German engineers, is being developed in Canada. The exodus of well-trained specialists has long since begun. Hopes for low electricity prices have also been dashed (merit order principle). The cheapest power generation was nuclear energy. Germany will retain the highest electricity prices in the world in the long term. On top of that, with the end of the last three nuclear power plants, 15 billion euros of material value were destroyed.

Many technicians, engineers, and people with a technical and scientific education were against an exit. But most other people, however, didn’t care at all. A silent majority was supposedly in favor of the continued operation of the NPPs. The Greens, a relatively small minority (only 10% of eligible voters), have imposed their will on Germany. We are hostages to their anti-technology ideology. Our political leadership and its court reporters, the state media (ÖR-Rundfunk), are jubilant. These are anti-technology ideologues and ignoramuses. Politicians who have studied and dropped out of anything related to social or political issues, who have never worked in a profession, who have opted out of physics and STEM subjects, who cannot distinguish between millivolts and megawatts, have now blissfully arrived at the end of their goal in a frenzy of joy.

The self-proclaimed “Progressive Coalition” demonizes nuclear energy as an uncontrollable high-risk technology. With a double whammy, Scholz and Habeck are phasing out nuclear energy and coal at the same time. What a massive double funeral. It is supposed to succeed with a socialist planned economy without a plan (GDR 2.0; Otto Schily). The turning point that Mr. Scholz conjures up will be a downward turn. The chancellor would have remembered his oath of office better and decided to avert harm to the German people. As is well known, however, he often cannot remember. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change explicitly calls for the use of nuclear energy to save the climate. You can become schizophrenic as the German Minister of Economic Affairs and Climate Change. For many countries that are working on a man-made climate crisis caused by CO₂ , there is a downright compulsion to use nuclear energy, because wind and sun can never do it alone.

Nuclear energy was destroyed. The Greens can tick this off as a complete success. The “kill bill” of the Greens now includes the German car industry (gasoline and diesel), the chemical industry, meat consumption, private single-family homes and oil and gas heating.

The Green machine strikers have enforced their holy of holies, the dogma of “nuclear power no thanks”, at all costs in Germany. It didn’t matter what experts and foreign countries had to say about it, no matter what unimaginable damage it inflicted on the population and industry. Regardless, the green craze was enforced against all odds.

Nuclear Minister Strauss has given it – Climate Minister Habeck has taken it

The shutdown of nuclear power plants marks the end of an era in Germany. We were the global technology leader and are now slipping from the top to the very end.

In the Adenauer cabinet there was a Minister of Atomic Energy Franz-Josef Strauss (1956, the elders remember). He brought the peaceful use of nuclear energy to Germany. The FRG joined the Euratom Treaty and in Munich the first reactor, the “Atomei”, became critical. It is thanks to Strauss that, for example, the poor agricultural state of Bavaria has become a modern high-tech location. Bavaria had once covered 5% of its electricity needs with only 70 nuclear power plant units. Now the federal government is handling everything again and the “grandson” Söder has to watch helplessly.

Germany is shutting down.

Rest in peace.

Hans Ambos
Bensheim