Three Nuclear Plants Close in Germany, Final Three to Be Retired in 2022
The end of the year will bring the end of power production for three of Germany’s final six operating nuclear power plants. The 1,410-MW Brokdorf unit in Schleswig-Holstein, the 1,360-MW Grohnde unit in Lower Saxony, and the 1,288-MW Gundremmingen C unit in Bavaria will all be permanently taken off the gird on Dec. 31. That will leave three nuclear reactors in operation in Germany—the 1,335-MW Emsland unit in Lower Saxony, the 1,410-MW Isar 2 unit in Bavaria, and the 1,310-MW Neckarwestheim 2 unit in Baden-Württemberg. All three of the remaining units are slated to close by the end of 2022.
The nuclear phaseout in Germany has been planned for more than a decade. In May 2011, Germany’s then-Chancellor Angela Merkel officially endorsed the idea. Merkel had been a nuclear power supporter and actually overturned a phaseout policy enacted by a previous administration, but after the Fukushima disaster, her position changed. The decision to phaseout nuclear kicked the country’s Energiewende (or energy transition) into high gear.…