German coal

[dan_b]

The obvious conclusion from this is if Germany hadn’t actively chosen to wind down their nuclear fleet they would have been able to have completely quit burning coal by now.

[Joeboy]

The obvious conclusion from this is if Germany hadn’t actively chosen to wind down their nuclear fleet they would have been able to have completely quit burning coal by now.

Dan, are you aware of fleet lifespan and potential longevity of the nukes? I have zero awareness, thought you might know? Is it full shutdown and dismantle or shutdown and mothball?

[Thebeeman]

My understanding is that they have begun dismantling the nukes. No going back.

[Joeboy]

My understanding is that they have begun dismantling the nukes. No going back.

Thanks Beeman, was it a pre Ukraine invasion political promise? Either way, fair play for sticking to their guns. More RE then and plenty of it to offset the hopefully falling annual coal burn.

[Thebeeman]

I think Angela was spooked by Chernobyl or Fuchishima ( the Japanese one). Knee jerk reaction that she followed through.

[Mr Gus]

Nuclear fuel, how much is from russia, what grade & so on, ie, how much leverage does Ras-sputum have planned?

Does / did nuclear closedown play any part of the current german scheme?

[Thebeeman]

I think the nuclear accidents spooked her and she went all out gas, from Russia, a not very good move as it turned out.

[Swwils]

Several of their plants were brand spanking new with several decades of on grid operation in front of them.

Aside from the plants themselves, Germany was one of the few entities that had the right prerequisites for scalable fuel production.

I won't go into the wild history leading to this decision, but it goes pretty deep pretty fast and many of those are still around influencing things!

Several of the plants can be reversed - they took apart the replaceable things first.

[dan_b]

It was a decision heavily influenced by the Fukushima disaster - and enabled by the then increasing closeness between Germany, the EU and Russia.

[Mart]

I'd hoped that the shutdown decision would be halted or at least delayed after the invasion of Ukraine. Sadly the different parties wouldn't budge, both on the shutdown of nuclear nor imposing temporary lower speed limits on the Autobahns.

It's always easy to use hindsight to criticise some policies, but refusing to budge in real time is pretty poor. I think.