Nuclear power in Germany

Germany was after the war a great nation in the nuclear industry and between 1957 and 2004 about 110 nuclear installations were commissioned among which PWR, BWR, HTR, sodium reactors and research reactors. The opposition to nuclear energy became more extreme and took momentum after the Chernobyl accident. In 1998 the red-green coalition launched the progressive nuclear power phaseout policy and now nuclear energy appears as a transition energy before the takeover of full-grown alternative energies. This new policy had impacts on the research programs and the curricula of the universities, for instance the training in nuclear sciences is waning. Today 17 reactors dispatched on 12 sites are operating and have generated 23% of the electricity produced in 2008. As for the disposal of radioactive wastes, Germany has since long studied the disposal in deep geological layers. 2 sites have been selected: the Gorleben salt mines and the clay site of Konrad. The government has acknowledged the insufficient development of alternative energies and has proposed in its program to extend the service life of today's reactors. Despite the nuclear phaseout, there is in Germany a powerful nuclear industry whose main actors are Siemens, RWE, EON, Areva-NS and Urenco. (A.C.)