* Seismograms of Nuclear Explosions Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources, Germany

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March 21, 2008

* Germany - 2012 electricity peak demand forecast to be higher than capacity

March 23, 2007

* German Greens fight coal-fired power station plan
Tony Paterson, The Independent (UK)

A €30bn (£20bn) scheme for the construction of 26 new coal-fired power stations in Germany by 2020 has been approved by German Chancellor Merkel's grand coalition, as the country moves to abandon nuclear power. Some of the power stations, which aim to use cheap Polish and South African coal and highly polluting German lignite coal, have already been built and others are at an advanced planning stage. Germany's Federal Environment Agency insists that new power plants will lead to an overall reduction of the country's current C02 emissions, but only by 14 per cent, much lower than Ms Merkel's 40 per cent target.

The project has infuriated environmentalists, who are already angered by Ms Merkel's lobbying to ensure tough new curbs on CO2 emissions are not imposed on European car makers. Reinhard Loske, a Green Party spokesman, said that if the 13 coal-fired stations planned for the nation's most populous state -- North Rhine Westphalia -- went ahead, then the state would end up with a higher C02 output than the whole of Switzerland. New gas-fired power stations emit 365g of CO2 per kW/hour, hard coal plants produce 750g and lignite-fired plants up to 1,153g.

* [2006-05-28] Germany's wind farms challenged
Tim Bowler, BBC News

April 2, 2006

* Germany - industry chief sees need to extend life of existing nuclear plants

* [2006-03-17] Trial Begins for German on Nuclear Charges
Stephen Graham, Guardian

* [2006-03-16] German nuke plants excluded from summit
UPI

* [2006-03-09] Germany to build nuke waste storage site
UPI

October 17, 2005

German nuclear industry hopes to influence the new government's policy agenda, but the champagne glasses have been put back

This was meant to be party time for Germany's nuclear power industry. After seven years of a anti-nuclear government, industry executives had hoped last month's election would provide a new lease of life for atomic power. The reality is turning out otherwise. Angela Merkel, the conservative leader, is due today to open coalition policy negotiations with Mr Schroder's Social Democrats, with the latter under pressure to give ground on nuclear power. Yet Sigmar Gabriel, who is expected to become the next environment minister, stressed last week that the SPD "would not accept" the need for a review of nuclear policy. Executives at utility giants such as Eon and RWE have packed away the champagne glasses, yet there remains a sense of change in the air in the German energy sector. Germany's business associations have this year been at the vanguard of efforts to rethink this energy mix, citing the severe impact of high oil prices on transport and industry costs. BDI, the leading industrial association, wants the nuclear plants to be allowed to run for at least an extra decade. "The high oil price has had many knock-on effects, such as pushing up the price of gas, increasing demand for coal, and encouraging many people to re-examine the wisdom of phasing out nuclear power," says Claudia Kemfert, energy specialist at Berlin's DIW economic research institute.

Christian Hey of SRU, the government's independent advisory commission on the environment, disagrees. "A new focus on nuclear power would mean a distraction from investing in more important energy sources." He argues that the new government should build on achievements since 1998 in promoting renewable energy sources, and notes the leading position in international markets of many German wind and solar technology companies. Despite a CDU manifesto pledge to rein in government subsidies offered to renewable energy producers, experts say big cuts are unlikely, not least because the renewable energy industry now employs more than 130,000 people.

[Source: Hugh Williamson, "German poll hinders nuclear revival", Financial Times (London, England), October 17, 2005, p. 10]

August 10, 2005

Surging electricity price in Germany

German wholesale power prices are 46 percent higher since the start of 2004

[Source: Peter Dinkloh (Bloomberg-Frankfurt), "E.ON 2nd-Qtr Profit Climbs 15% on Record German Power Prices", August 10, 2005 07:42 EDT]

Germany - Sept 2005 election could lead to scrapping of n-plant phaseout deal

Germany's opposition conservative party, the Christian Democrats, led by Angela Merkel, have promised to, if they win the general election next month, scrap an agreement between utilities and the governing coalition of Social Democrats and the Green Party that will phase out nuclear power in about 20 years. Germany's nuclear power plants are the cheapest source of power generation for utilities there, so extending their lifespan would be positive for them, analysts have said. Matthias Heck, an analyst at Sal Oppenheim, said last week that abolishing the agreement may increase E.ON's market value by 6.2 billion euros. The market value for RWE AG, the world's second-biggest publicly traded utility, may climb by 5.2 billion euros, he said.

[Source: Peter Dinkloh (Bloomberg-Frankfurt), "E.ON 2nd-Qtr Profit Climbs 15% on Record German Power Prices", August 10, 2005 07:42 EDT]

map of German n-plants [courtesy of Aktionsbuendnis CASTOR-Widerstand Neckarwestheim]

* 2005-05-11: Germany shuts down nuclear plant
BBC News

* 2005-05-19: Paris backs on withdrawal of US nuclear weapons from Germany
Xinhua News

* 2005-05-11: Germany Shuts Down Atomic Reactor
Deutsche Welle

* 2005-05-10: Germany to shut down nuclear power plant
Xinhua News

* 2005-05-04: Germany Pressures US Over Nuke Removal
Deutsche Welle

December 23, 2004

Germany - Reactor Safety Commission

The government of Germany appoints the members of the nation's premier safety advisory board, which is Reactor Safety Commission (RSK). Currently, the appointment/reappointment decisions are made by Juergen Trittin, Federal Minister of Environment & Nuclear Safety (BMU). Mr. Trittin is a leader of the Green Party. He was named minister by Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, as part of a coalition government of Social Democrats and Greens. Trittin decided not to reappoint Eberhard Grauf to another two-year term on the RSK. The art of reading political tea leaves has been applied to this turn of events. The only player which might prefer Grauf's absence appears to be Energie Baden-Wuerttemberg AG (EnBW), one of the four German utilities that in 2000 agreed to a phase-out of nuclear plants. Grauf had been a plant manager for EnBW when first appointed to the RSK two years ago, and had criticized his corporate-level bosses regarding safety culture issues. He was fired by the company last summer, and there's been a variety of public reports of disagreements between the company and its former employee. The phase-out deal calls for the oldest of EnBW's five reactors, the Obrigheim PWR, to be shut in mid-2005, followed by a second reactor, Neckarwestheim-1, in 2008 or 2009. EnBW may extend the lifetime of these reactors, but only if it requests, and the federal government then permits, that an allotment of remaining generation from another reactor be transferred to these units. Your humble nuclear.com editor would not be surprised if EnBW does request life extension, and that Trittin's decision reflects EnBW's desire that Grauf not be involved in analysis of the request.

[Refs: Klaus Schramm, "Trittin removes critical experts on behalf of EnBW; Is Trittin extortable?", Netzwerk Regenbogen, December 25, 2004 (in German); Roland Muschel, "Trittin supports Mappus indirectly in the atomic controversy", Heilbronner Stimme, November 30, 2004 (in German); Mark Hibbs (Platts - Bonn), "Trittin overrules reactor safety commision, excludes Grauf", Nucleonics Week, v46 n2, January 13, 2005, p. 1; Mark Hibbs, "German safety experts rallying behind fired Neckarwestheim-2 plant manager", Inside N.R.C., December 27, 2004, v26 n26, p. 1 Mark Hibbs, "Memo suggests Neckar-2 head was sacked after safety policy turmoil", Nucleonics Week,ÊDecember 9, 2004,Êp. 1; Mark Hibbs, "EnBW axes another plant executive, this time over outage discharge", Nucleonics Week,ÊSeptember 30, 2004,Êp. 3; Mark Hibbs, "Fired Neckar-2 plant manager suing EnBW, charging no cause", Nucleonics Week,ÊAugust 12, 2004; Mark Hibbs, "Grounds for Neckar-2 dismissal not yet clarified, BMU says", Nucleonics Week,ÊAugust 5, 2004,Êp. 9; Mark Hibbs, "EnBW told state regulators Neckar-2 plant head was fired", Inside N.R.C.,ÊJuly 26, 2004,Êp. 8; and Mark Hibbs, "EnBW denies persistent rumors Neckar-2 head quit over cuts", Nucleonics Week,ÊJuly 22, 2004,Êp. 12]

June 10, 2004

* Macedonia - nuclear power plant needed, now, says legislator, citing French and German nuclear company loans as attractive

June 5, 2004

* Wind - Four nations accounted for 86% of installed capacity in 2001 (Denmark, Germany, Spain and US)

* Germany announces EU500-million loan programs for renewables, efficiency in developing nations

Germany - national CO2 allocation plan shaves 2 million tons off of 505 million tons

Germany's [national CO2 allocation plan]... deflated expectations: In its first round, Berlin shaved just 2 million tons off current annual output of 505 million tons of carbon dioxide gas. Following the German lead, other EU governments also drafted lax emissions plans... Berlin's Social Democrat government "surrendered to the coal lobby," complained a leading European environmentalist, Stephan Singer. The EU's Wallstrom noted the Social Democrats' slumping political support in Germany. "With the economic downturn in Europe and the difficult political situation, we did not expect they would come up with extremely ambitious plans," she said.

[Source: Charles J. Hanley (AP Special Correspondent), "As world takes halting steps, some try trading 'hot air' to buy time on climate", The Associated Press, June 5, 2004 1:10 pm ET]

---sbs---

May 19, 2004

* PWR safety experiments planned for German primary coolant loop test facility

April 4, 2004

Germany - wind power - "the worst desecration of our countryside since war 400 years ago"

The debate over wind power is particularly fierce in Germany, the world's largest wind power producer with 15,000 turbines and which is committed to scrapping all of its nuclear power stations. Legislation to double the number of wind farms over the next 16 years, approved by the country's parliament last week, has provoked angry protests.

Vast tracts of agricultural land are blanketed by huge wind turbines, many more than 400 feet tall. German residents whose nights are blighted by flashing red lights mounted on the turbine blades to alert aircraft complain about the so-called "disco effect".

Hans-Joachim Mengel, a Berlin University professor who has formed a protest group to fight the extension of wind power in the rural Uckermark region north of Berlin, said: "The turbines are the worst desecration of our countryside since it was laid waste in the 30 Years War nearly 400 years ago."

Botho Strauss, one of Germany's foremost playwrights, who lives in the region, argues: "No phase of industrialisation has caused such brutal destruction of the landscape as wind power."

[Source: Renee Mickelburgh et al., "Huge protests by voters force the continent's governments to rethink so-called green energy", Sunday Telegraph (London), April 4, 2004, p. 28]

March 21, 2004

German government to nix Siemens n-sale to China

To avoid a crisis in the governing coalition between Chancellor Schroeder's Social Democrats and its junior partner, the Greens, the government has decided reject the sale of a plutonium plant at Hanau. The deal had been approved by Chancellor Schroeder, but Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, who is the head of the Green Party in the ruling coalition, had warned Schroeder the Greens would not accept the sale. The switch has not yet been officially announced. AFP reports that a German government spokesperson said "no decision has yet been taken" and that the government "was continuing to study the sale."

[Source: Der Spiegel, March 22, 2004, cited by Agence France Presse, "Germany to stop sale of nuclear plant to China: report", March 20, 2004]

December 19, 2003

Siemens shares in Finland's choice for new EPR

Finland's TVO decided to go with the advanced European PWR design in awarding contract for its fifth reactor to the consortium of AREVA and Siemens. FORATOM's Secretary General notes that "France is already seriously considering the EPR as a replacement for its existing large fleet of power reactors, so the new contract could be just the first of many more to come."

[Source: FORATOM European Atomic Forum press release, "Contract confirms new future for nuclear energy in Europe", December 19, 2003]

November 27, 2003

German utilities shy about anything nuclear at least until 2006 elections

The federal government coalition of Greens and Social Democrats (SPD), in power since 1998, is quite antinuclear. The next general election is 2006. And in the meantime, German utilities are wary of doing anything to prompt even more antinuclear actions by the government. In 2000, four German utilities -- E.On AG, Energie Baden-Wuerttemberg AG (EnBW), RWE AG, and Vattenfall Europe, which owns Hamburgische Electricitaetswerke AG (HEW) -- signed an agreement to limit the lifetimes of the country's 19 operating power reactors. In exchange, the government has cooperated on backfitting, restarts, and licensing of waste and spent fuel transport and storage. The phase-out also precludes any investment in Germany for replacement nuclear capacity. Although the agreement does not in any way limit the utilities' foreign projects, top management sees such projects as carrying high political risk. If German utility were to invest in new nuclear plant being built say, in France, and then power from the plant was imported into Germany, the phase-out deal would be characterized by many as a sham, perhaps prompting more trouble than the power is worth.

[Ref: Mark Hibbs (Platts-Bonn), "EDF presses German utilities to join French EPR project", Nucleonics Week,Êv44 n48, November 27, 2003,Êp. 1]

August 21, 2003

The German government is phasing out subsidies for its domestic coal industry. RAG, Germany's sole remaining hard coal producer, hinted last week it might exit coal mining in Germany. [Source: Reuters, "ANALYSIS-German ministers at loggerheads over energy needs", August 21, 2003]

August 19, 2003

German jailed for illegal shipment of aluminum tubes to Korea seized in April

Der Spiegel, published yesterday, reports that German officials intercepted a 22-ton shipment of 214 aluminum tubes that were likely intended for North Korea's uranium enrichment program. The shipment, destined for the North Korean Nam Chon Gang company, was seized in Hamburg. The director of a company called Optronic, based in southern Koenigsbronn, was jailed in April on suspicion of violating laws on arms control and export. Prosecutors have also accused two Hamburg businessmen of participating in the crime. [Source: AFX News, "Three Germans accused of selling nuclear materiel to NKorea - report", AFX European Focus, August 17, 2003 (subscription required) Copyright 2003 AFX News Limited]

August 13, 2003

In Germany, a lack of wind has reportedly led to a loss of around 12 000 megawatts (MW) of expected wind power for the national grid.

Energie Baden-WŸrttemberg (EnBW), in the state of Baden-WŸrttemberg, praised support from regional authorities in helping to ensure that nuclear plants continued to help meet demand for electricity during the heatwave Ð while some regulators rejected 'misguided' political attempts to use the situation to take nuclear plants off line. EnBW said yesterday that co-operation with local authorities had led to prompt action to allow cooling water from its plants to be returned to rivers at slightly raised temperatures.

EnBW also pointed out that "noticeably less electricity" was being used, following an appeal to the general public, and that the grid situation in the region was currently "stable". The company described the situation as "serious but in no way dramatic" Ð stressing that power generation problems were caused by extreme weather conditions Ð and not the technology used for nuclear electricity generation.

Baden-WŸrttemberg's state ministry for environment and transport said that output from both units of EnBW's Neckarwestheim nuclear power plant had been reduced to 80% since 5th August because the temperature of the Neckar river had risen to around 26¡C. The state's ministry for environment and transport pointed out that plant operators had advised the authorities that the continued safe operation of the plant would not be compromised Ð even if output returned to 100% and the river temperature were to rise above 26¡C. The Obrigheim nuclear power plant, also in Baden-WŸrttemberg, was taken off line on 5th August in order to comply with restrictions on river temperatures, and a planned yearly outage is due to start on 17th August. At EnBW's Philippsburg plant, unit one has been operating at 80% of capacity since 5th August. The reduced output will also apply to the plant's second unit when it returns to service soon following a planned outage.

In Bavaria, the state ministry responsible for the environment rejected calls from members of the country's governing Red-Green coalition parties for the shut-down of E.On's two-unit Isar nuclear power plant because of a rise in temperature of the Isar river. The ministry described the political intervention as "misguided", and pointed out that while the duties and conditions of operation were being fulfilled by nuclear plants, the authorities had no right to force operations to be suspended. The ministry said that the temperature with the release of cooling water from both of the Isar units had "levelled out" at around 24¡C Ð which was below EU and Bavarian regulatory levels. The ministry said maximum "mixed water temperature" there could be 28¡C "and occasionally above" that level.

[Source: John Shepherd (NucNet Central Office), "Europe's Heatwave: Nuclear Shows Staying Power As Wind Fails", NucNet, August 13, 2003]

Biblis A sump mod rejected, restart denied

August 13, 2003

Germany: The state of Hesse has for the second time been refused permission by the Federal Ministry of Environment & Nuclear Safety (BMU) to issue a licence to RWE Power AG to backfit the sump strainer at the Biblis A nuclear power reactor. Jurgen Trittin, Federal Minister of Environment & Nuclear Safety, said that Hesse had failed to tell BMU over a lengthy period that part of the sump inside Biblis A's containment would not have withstood a severe accident without engineering adjustments not included in the current backfit proposal. Trittin's decision is likely to further delay the backfit and restart of the reactor. (Nucleonics Week, 7 August, p9; see also News Briefing 03.28-12)

[Source: World Nuclear Association, WNA News Briefing NB03.32-6, August 12, 2003]

* Germany - full text of nuclear phaseout agreement

* Key dates in the nuclear power phaseout policy-making

* Germany - Schršder policy statement on phaseout of nuclear power

* 2000 - In preparing the UNSCEAR 2000 report on "Sources and Effects of Ionizing Radiation", the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation sent every member nation a Survey of Exposures, asking expert quantification of the radiation exposures to populations in that nation from natural radiation sources. The respondents for Germany were A. Bayer, E. Ettenhuber and W. Burkart (Bundesamt fŸr Strahlenschutz, Oberschleissheim).

* Germany 1998

[Source: Nuclear Energy Agency (2000), as presented by THE ECONOMIC FUTURE OF NUCLEAR POWER: A Study Conducted at The University of Chicago, August 2004, p. 2-5]

1986

Mean individual dose to West Germans from Chernobyl accident (over 50-year period) is projected to be 250 microSieverts. The collective dose to West Germans over the same period is projected to be 15,400 person-Sieverts. The projections take into account inhalation from the passing cloud, ingestion through the food chain, and external irradiation from deposited radioactivity, and are based on the MESOS dispersion model developed by Helen ApSimon of Imperial College, as applied by W. Nixon, of the Safety and Reliability Directorate of the U.K. Atomic Energy Authority. [Ref: Nuclear News, "Chernobyl doses across the continent", January 1987, p. 62]

1986

Mean individual dose to East Germans from Chernobyl accident (over 50-year period) is projected to be 500 microSieverts. The collective dose to East Germans over the same period is projected to be 8,370 person-Sieverts. The projections take into account inhalation from the passing cloud, ingestion through the food chain, and external irradiation from deposited radioactivity, and are based on the MESOS dispersion model developed by Helen ApSimon of Imperial College, as applied by W. Nixon, of the Safety and Reliability Directorate of the U.K. Atomic Energy Authority. [Ref: Nuclear News, "Chernobyl doses across the continent", January 1987, p. 62]