2008 Winter meeting: the future of nuclear power

More than 350 persons from the power economy, industry, politics, administration, science and research met in Berlin on February 6 and 7, 2008 at the invitation of the Deutsches Atomforum e.V. to exchange ideas and experience at the 2008 Winter Meeting. This year's event focused on the present status of nuclear power worldwide, in Europe, and in Germany. On a global as well as a European scale, as speakers confirmed across the board, nuclear power is experiencing an upswing, with its current plants running successfully and a number of new nuclear power plant projects under way. Nationally, in Germany, nuclear power continues to be blocked. The contribution nuclear power can make against the backdrop of climate protection, rising demand for energy, and other aspects of sustainability in a future energy mix, and the development framework conditions, were points discussed in contributions by Walter Hohlefelder (President of the Deutsches Atomforum e.V.), Kurt J. Lauk, MEP (President of the Conomic Advisory Board of the Christian Democratic Union), Philipp Missfelder (CDU MP, Federal Chairman, Junge Union Deutschlands), Wolfgang Clement (former Federal Minister of Economics), Marc Oliver Bettzuege (Energy Economy Institute, Cologne University), Eberhard Umbach (President, Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft e.V.), and Ulrich Jobs (Member, Executive Board, RWE AG). (orig.)