Nuke Energy Discussion

 In the past week....Germany's Energy Minister commented: 'The phase-out of nuclear power was a huge mistake.'

So I'll lay out the whole story....as simply as I can.

Around  1990, as DDR ended....Kohl's people went to find East Germans who could fit into the CDU strategy....for political motives.  They eventually came to the conclusion....Merkel was 'it'.  She was invited for a coffee....Kohl had found his 'Eastie', and history is concreted  down.

The job for CDU bureaucrat Merkel?  Well.....she was a scientist...so the Energy Minister was the obvious job.

What she discovered  over the next year.....Germany's plan to bury nuke-waste....was not really supported by any state, and most science-minded folks felt it was 'wrong'. The path?  You'd have to eventually take down the nuke energy sector.  

To make up for this?  You'd run coal-plants, bump up solar/wind, and have some reserve energy via cheap Russian natural gas.

Kohl goes away....the SPD runs things  briefly.....Merkel builds her path to the Chancellor-job.

In this decade...it's decided that coal  is 'evil'.

Eventually....a massive amount of suffering funds (identified in the 30-to-35 billion Euro range) is put up....to shut down the coal 'pits' and coal energy sector....to retrain workers (particularly in the NW part of Germany).  But don't worry....wind/solar are bumped up, nuke energy still flows, and cheap Russian natural gas is covering the end of coal-energy.

Fukushima occurs.  Over a 2-to-3 year period....it's decided that evil-nuke-energy must end. There's some talk of keeping two or three around....but that plan gets dumped.  Don't worry....wind/solar get bumped up and cheap Russian natural gas covers things.

Then the war happen....with evil-Russia and Ukraine.  That strategy craps out  for natural gas.

So what you have is wind/solar, and on a really bad day....you go to the EU grid, and consume/buy power from  France  or 'friends'....at a hefty rate.  That grid-power....being nuke or coal?  Its best not to  bring that up.

So cherries on this cake?

Well....Bavaria (the state) would like to have a nuke-plant (or two)....the federal gov't said 'NO'....only they can authorize such.  Why does Bavaria want the nuke plants?  They realized that power requirements for industry are expanding.

More?  Austria has designed their nuke-energy burial sit....deep down....about five miles from the German border (Bavaria).....yeah, and this made the Germans angry.

More?  More and more of the high-energy consumer companies are reviewing the idea of exiting Germany....for cheaper grid countries.

Home price for power (2026) in Germany?  Around 37 Euro cent per kWh.  Some folks have exceptional long-term deals at 24  to  27 cents.

Homes hooked up for solar?  German authorities at the end of 2024 said it was 15-percent, with expectations by 2030 of 25-percent.  The problem to dispose of panels?  Yet-to-be-brought-up......but it'll shock some folks when the recycle yard starts quoting 200 Euro per panel.

It's not a happy story over what happened to nuke energy, and it's fairly amusing to look at German neighbors who didn't fall for the 'trap'.