German Parliament Approves Nuclear Power Shutdown
BERLIN -- German lawmakers overwhelmingly approved on Thursday plans to shut the country's nuclear plants by 2022, putting Europe's biggest economy on the road to an ambitious build-up of renewable energy.
The lower house of parliament voted 513-79 for the shutdown plan drawn up by Chancellor Angela Merkel's government after Japan's post-earthquake nuclear disaster. Most of the opposition voted in favor; eight lawmakers abstained.
Lawmakers sealed for good the shutdown of eight of the older reactors, which have been off the grid since March. Germany's remaining nine reactors will be shut down in stages by the end of 2022.
By 2020, Germany wants to double the share of energy stemming from water, wind, sun or biogas to at least 35 percent. Until this year, nuclear energy accounted for a bit less than a quarter of Germany's power supply.
Germany joins the short list of socially responsible countries that explicitly reject nuclear power. At this time the only other ones I know of are New Zealand and Switzerland; please leave a comment if you know of any more.
Full article:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/30/germany-nuclear-power-shutdown_n_887590.html
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