Nuclear power - is an opt-out possible?

Not only diminished societal acceptance, but also economic reasons currently advocate opting out of the generation of nuclear power. Prices of substitute energies, such as oil, natural gas, and imported hard coal, have dropped considerably over the past few years. In addition, technical progress has been achieved mainly in gas-fired power plants. Power utilities nowadays would not build nuclear power plants, but decide to invest into modern combined cycle plants fired by natural gas. The capital costs of building new combined cycle plants (DM 1000/kW) are clearly below those of nuclear power plants (DM 4300/kW). Analyses of three opt-out scenarios show that the least harmful way would be to seek a soft landing by phasing out nuclear power in a natural way in Germany without exerting any political pressure. This would meet the four targets of energy policy: There would be no price increases and no destruction of capital; the continuity of power supply would not be jeopardized; natural resources would be conserved, and environmental goals would be achievable. (orig.)