Plant shutdown reignites German nuclear spat
BERLIN (The Associated Press) - Jul 6 - By GEIR MOULSON Associated Press Writer
>
> Chancellor Angela Merkel's center-left rivals made it clear
> Monday they will make nuclear power a major issue in the September
> national election, following a weekend shutdown at a troubled German
> nuclear plant.
>
> The plant at Kruemmel, near Hamburg, shut down automatically on
> Saturday following a short-circuit in a transformer. The plant had
> reopened only last month after a two-year closure that followed a fire
> in another transformer in 2007.
>
> That offered the center-left Social Democrats - currently the
> conservative Merkel's partners in a "grand coalition" of Germany's
> biggest parties that both hope to end in Sept. 27 elections - a chance
> to highlight a key policy difference.
>
> The Social Democrats have fiercely defended the decision by
> Germany's previous government, which they led, to phase out Germany's
> 17 nuclear power plants by 2021. Merkel's Christian Democratic Union
> opposes abandoning nuclear energy and wants to extend some reactors'
> lives.
>
> Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel, a Social Democrat, said the
> future of nuclear power plants is now "in the hands of Germans."
>
> "On Sept. 27, Germans will decide whether this reactor and
> several others run for longer, as the CDU and Chancellor Merkel have
> proposed, or whether we can finally switch off eight of these
> problematic reactors" in the coming years, Gabriel said on ARD
> television.
>
> Nuclear power has long been a sensitive subject in Germany,
> especially since the 1986 explosion and fire at the Chernobyl nuclear
> power plant in the former Soviet Union spread radiation over parts of
> Europe.
> Gabriel's
> party argues that the risks of using nuclear energy are too great.
>
> Even Merkel's party, in its election platform last month, opposes
> building new nuclear plants. However, it states that nuclear power is
> an "indispensable part for now" of Germany's energy mix until climate-
> friendly alternatives are available at a sufficiently attractive cost.
>
> "We cannot replace overnight the 60 or 70 percent of power in
> Bavaria that we get from nuclear energy from other plants," Bavaria's
> conservative state environment minister, Markus Soeder, told
> Bayerischer Rundfunk radio.
>
> "Nuclear technology is a bridging technology," he said. "We need
> it until we have it completely replaced by renewable energy."
>
> Merkel's conservatives hope to form a coalition after the
> election with the pro-business Free Democrats, who also oppose
> abandoning nuclear energy.
>
> Kruemmel's operator, the Swedish-based Vattenfall, has given no
> date for the power station to restart but says the plant, which opened
> in 1983, plans to operate for another eight or nine years.
>
>
>
> Chancellor Angela Merkel's center-left rivals made it clear
> Monday they will make nuclear power a major issue in the September
> national election, following a weekend shutdown at a troubled German
> nuclear plant.
>
> The plant at Kruemmel, near Hamburg, shut down automatically on
> Saturday following a short-circuit in a transformer. The plant had
> reopened only last month after a two-year closure that followed a fire
> in another transformer in 2007.
>
> That offered the center-left Social Democrats - currently the
> conservative Merkel's partners in a "grand coalition" of Germany's
> biggest parties that both hope to end in Sept. 27 elections - a chance
> to highlight a key policy difference.
>
> The Social Democrats have fiercely defended the decision by
> Germany's previous government, which they led, to phase out Germany's
> 17 nuclear power plants by 2021. Merkel's Christian Democratic Union
> opposes abandoning nuclear energy and wants to extend some reactors'
> lives.
>
> Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel, a Social Democrat, said the
> future of nuclear power plants is now "in the hands of Germans."
>
> "On Sept. 27, Germans will decide whether this reactor and
> several others run for longer, as the CDU and Chancellor Merkel have
> proposed, or whether we can finally switch off eight of these
> problematic reactors" in the coming years, Gabriel said on ARD
> television.
>
> Nuclear power has long been a sensitive subject in Germany,
> especially since the 1986 explosion and fire at the Chernobyl nuclear
> power plant in the former Soviet Union spread radiation over parts of
> Europe.
> Gabriel's
> party argues that the risks of using nuclear energy are too great.
>
> Even Merkel's party, in its election platform last month, opposes
> building new nuclear plants. However, it states that nuclear power is
> an "indispensable part for now" of Germany's energy mix until climate-
> friendly alternatives are available at a sufficiently attractive cost.
>
> "We cannot replace overnight the 60 or 70 percent of power in
> Bavaria that we get from nuclear energy from other plants," Bavaria's
> conservative state environment minister, Markus Soeder, told
> Bayerischer Rundfunk radio.
>
> "Nuclear technology is a bridging technology," he said. "We need
> it until we have it completely replaced by renewable energy."
>
> Merkel's conservatives hope to form a coalition after the
> election with the pro-business Free Democrats, who also oppose
> abandoning nuclear energy.
>
> Kruemmel's operator, the Swedish-based Vattenfall, has given no
> date for the power station to restart but says the plant, which opened
> in 1983, plans to operate for another eight or nine years.
>
>