Nuclear Power: A Conundrum

Nuclear Power: A Conundrum

To many Germans, the closure of nuclear reactors on their soil has been very welcome, for the use of nuclear power in Germany is a very contentious issue. After the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, caused by an earthquake and tsunami in Japan on May 11 2011, the German Chancellor Angela Merkel announced that German would shut down all of its nuclear reactors by 2022. Seven of them were to be taken offline immediately. (The Guardian, 2011.) In spite of these closures, Germany’s bureau of statistics reports that the country exported more electricity than it imported during the first half of 2011. (renewableenergyworld.com, 2011.) As the remaining reactors are shut down over the next ten years, if Germany was to source power from outside its borders, this would likely come from nuclear reactors located in France, close to the German border.

This is the conundrum Germany faces, for as they move away from using their own nuclear reactors, they may well be forced to support, just over the border, the very practice that has been so dramatically brought to a stop in their own country. It was the fear of a replication of the Chernobyl or Fukushima disasters was the prime reason for the push to close German nuclear reactors, yet we can see from these disasters how far reaching the consequences were. If a meltdown of one of the reactors along the French-German border was to occur, avoiding the resulting fallout would be impossible.

Rather than simply being a cruel irony, the closure of nuclear reactors was based on moral reasons, and so too is the decision to use nuclear power from France. Germany wishes to be seen as a world leader in the use of renewable energy, and have invested vast sums of money into these technologies over the last few years. However, it is acknowledged that these green power supplies lack dependability, and the time when there can be total reliance on these systems is still a far way off. The moral dilemma faced by Germany is that it has a desire to demonstrate to the world the path they should be taking by moving away from nuclear and investing in renewables, yet at the same time they require an affordable electricity supply. By shutting down their reactors so rapidly, Germany leaves itself with no other option than to continue to pursue the use of renewable fuels while buying power from its neighbours. The fact that it may be nuclear power may not please all Germans, yet they feel that the right decision for them, (a morally better choice) is to buy nuclear power than to generate it themselves. By doing so, Germany will avoid the need to deal with radioactive waste from reactors, and will be able to avoid a potential nuclear disaster beginning within their borders.

However, the dangers existing with the use of nuclear power will not completely disappear with the exporting of power generation to France. If anything, the