Nuclear security

Opinion: Nuclear power uproar a waste of energy

Germany's nuclear energy turnaround, its complete phase out of nuclear energy and its concentration on renewables, is a German decision, not a European one. Therefore, German ministers should not be surprised when countries like France, Great Britain and Slovakia want to continue to discuss and research nuclear energy. There is also no conspiracy of other EU countries ganging up on Germany. The score is 14 to 14. Fourteen member states use nuclear energy, and 14 do not. All without decisions made in Brussels. Other EU member states are quite skeptical about Germany's about face on the subject. They are watching closely as Germany's energy companies begin to stumble economically in the midst of the energy transition, and it is not something they necessarily want to emulate.

In April, the European Commission published a report entitled "PINC," which addressed the safety of currently operating nuclear power plants and the disposal of nuclear waste. The German ministers should have been much more upset about that report as it included only the fuzziest of formulations on operational safety in all of Europe's oldest nuclear power plants.