From Tallbloke’s Talkshop

April 16, 2023 by oldbrew

Isar nuclear power site, Bavaria

Arm-waving propaganda about tiny amounts of ‘carbon’, i.e. vital carbon dioxide gas, in the atmosphere has led to this decision. One obvious problem being that wind and solar energy can’t be stockpiled, or accessed on demand, hence Germany’s newly increased dependence on coal power for its electricity.
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Germany became only the third European country to shut off its nuclear power supply on Saturday when its final three reactors were severed from the grid for good, says The Daily Telegraph.

The end of German nuclear energy, a process begun by former chancellor Angela Merkel after the Fukushima disaster in 2011, came at the same time as the country seeks to wean itself off fossil fuels and manage an energy crisis caused by the war in Ukraine.

A small crowd of pro-nuclear demonstrators turned out in front of the Brandenburg Gate on Saturday to protest the end of Germany’s nuclear era.

On the rain-drenched Pariser Platz, they watched a pantomime in which the sun and wind struggled to defeat men dressed as coal and gas until nuclear power came to the rescue.

“Our reactors set records for energy production year after year,” said Lucan Eichhorn, one of a small number of protesters on the pro-nuclear side.

“Switching them off when they could run for years longer really is the height of stupidity.”

On the other side of the gate, Greenpeace activists set up a float that depicted nuclear energy as a dinosaur being slain by the sun.

Johana Caro, dressed in a Greenpeace cagoule, said she had come out to celebrate the end of a “dangerous technology”.

“Our reliance on nuclear stopped us investing in renewables,” she asserted.
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“Our mentality means that when we start something, we see it through to the bitter end,” [one] nuclear advocate said.

“With nuclear energy, that means that we will only change course when we have hit rock bottom.”

Full article here.