Energies: Germany is split between coal and nuclear
The climate and the environment will be at the heart of the election which will appoint the new German chancellor on Sunday, September 26. Germany, which is shutting down its nuclear power plants after the Fukushima disaster in Japan.
For ten years, a methodical demolition has hit the cooling towers of German nuclear power plants. Reactor dismantling work is still in progress. In Philippsburg, many people are bitter. “The French continue nuclear power, why not do like them?” asks a quidam.
For thirty years, the power station made the fortune of the city, which multiplied the investments. Enough to overshadow the risk of explosion, invoked by anti-nuclear after Fukushima to justify the closure of power plants. “We could have thought about the consequences, before unplugging immediately”, deplores Dieter Day, deputy for finance of the town hall of Philippsburg. The solution, to compensate for nuclear power, had to be renewable energies. Today they are the source of a third of the electricity produced in Germany. So the country continues to operate gigantic coal mines.
