Digital Desk, Berlin. Germany will continue to phase out the nuclear phase with the permanent shutdown of the country’s last three nuclear reactors at the end of the year. This information was given by the German government.
The operating licenses of the three nuclear power plants will expire at the end of 2021 and will not be renewed, Xinhua news agency reported. The plants will go off-grid by the end of 2022. The German government said that the nuclear phase in Germany would be finished.
In the wake of the 2011 Fukushima disaster in Germany, former German Chancellor Angela Merkel began safety inspections of all nuclear power plants. This accelerated Germany’s phase out of nuclear power. According to the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis), about 57 percent of the electricity generated in Germany and fed into the grid in the third quarter (Q3) of 2021 came from conventional energy sources such as coal, natural gas or nuclear power.
The share of nuclear power in Germany increased from 12.9 percent last year to 14.2 percent in the third quarter of 2021, according to data from Destatis. After the nuclear power plants were shut down, the German government stated that even if it ceased to operate, removals should begin as soon as possible because the nuclear facility could pose a danger to people and the environment. However, discussions on the final stockpile for high-grade radioactive waste are not over yet. The government plans to complete this process by 2031 and from 2050 onwards, nuclear waste will be stored at the end site.
(IANS)
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