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Cold snap forces Germany to restart nuclear reactors

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© 2012 AFP

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Very interesting. I hope they are safe.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Time for Germany to invent new kinds of fuel, I am sure they can do it!

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You have to give Germany credit for acting decisively in the first place to take that many off line and again for re-activating some to cope with the cold.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

They got bitten by reality...

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Germany jumped the gun a bit and did not think it through. Closing down a bunch of plants is a good thing, but some should be converted to thorium because stuff happens.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Poor Germany. They could suck it up and stand by their principles; put on some mittens. Instead, they fire up their nuclear reactors and go back on a promise. China and India are planning to build dozens of nuclear power plants to tip their power balance away from coal and other carbon-based fuels. Germany is going the other direction. They'll need to build more natural gas fueled plants (Russian natural gas, btw) to make up for the energy alternative sources are technically unable to provide. Imagine a nation allowing the equivalent of a religious cult, in this case, the Greens, decide its energy policy.

-3 ( +0 / -3 )

Reality sucks, and people died because of instant change compared to gradual adaptation. They should keep up the reactors AND focus on finding alternatives (which should have been done a long long time ago). Germany isn't the only one at fault. Many countries could be doing the same thing, some have actually done this a long time ago and are doing just fine. I know mankind has the potential, its just too many just want to make money at the cost of anyone and anything.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

As my last employer used to say "needs must when the Devil craps in your briefcase".

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Whats the source of this news? I think it's incorrect. Germany has a "cold reserve" of power plants (gas and coal). One of them was powered up cause France currently needs to import more power (from Germany among others).

@HonestDictator: i don't think people die because of the nuclear pullout. I only know of one person who died in germany (a 75year old retiree was missing and found dead).

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I am sorry, but this is a hoax. Slovak press agency SITA mangled an article from AFP based on the so-called quoted article in Handelsblatt. In fact, Handelsblatt never wrote this.

Slovak newspaper SME explained it on their website:

http://www.sme.sk/c/6252269/nemci-pre-mrazy-opat-spustaju-odstavene-reaktory.html

Fact is that none of the closed German NPPs are in reserve according to a decision of the German regulator. Restarting them would be illegal because their license has been taken back.

True is that the German regulator brought some oil and coal capacity from cold shut down into spinning stand by in case there would be emergencies. To my knowledge, this extra capacity has not been called upon so far, because there is still sufficient capacity, partly due to a large amount of solar power in the South of Germany. In fact, Germany has over the last weeks exported electricity to France, which is in problems exactly because of its addiction to nuclear electricity.

Painful that you fell into this.

Jan Haverkamp - Greenpeace

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