Germany to shut down nuclear plants by 2022

Germany, May 30: Germany's governing body have mutually agreed to close down all the nuclear power plants in the country by 2022, said Norbert Roettgen, Minister of Ecology, Christian Democratic Union party on Monday, May 30.

The announcement came after discussions with the Liberal Party, an alliance of the party, which was against the setting of a date to decommission the nuclear facilities.

Meanwhile the opposition parties in Germany have always supported closing down of nuclear power plants in the country.

"Seven older nuclear power plants and the nuclear plant Kruemmel will not go back online a second group of six nuclear reactors will go offline at the end of 2021 at the latest, and the three most modern, newest nuclear plants will go offline in 2022 at the latest," said Roettgen.

According to the government website, the government is likely to incur economic losses through investing more in the energy research and switching to renewable sources of energy.

"But we will not be able to do without conventional power plants, above all cutting-edge gas power plants for a long time," according to a statement published last week

"New fruits of new research should contribute to making the energy transition more efficient and easier on the ecology."

Angela Merkel, German Chancellor in March declared that she would think over a plan to expand the lifespan of the nuclear power plants in the country.

"The events in Japan have shown us that even things that seem all but impossible scientifically can in fact happen," said Merkel at a news conference in Berlin.

Markel ordered a reassessment of the safety of nuclear power plants in Germany adding that there would be "no taboos in those reviews, after disaster struck Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant on Mar 11.

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