The Ethics of Nuclear Energy: Germany’s Energy Politics after Fukushima

The Fukushima nuclear accident had a large impact in Germany, a countrythat was already greatly sensitized to nuclear risks. Germany had one of thelarger nuclear power sectors in the world in the 1970s and 1980s. It began tobuild nuclear power plants in the 1960s and 1970s as a follower of the conceptof the Atoms for Peace Program. The government and industry invested heavilyin nuclear energy in the hopes of obtaining a cheap and sustainable supply ofenergy. Germany’s anti-nuclear movement questioned the safety and costs ofnuclear energy and pointed to the ethical concerns about leaving nuclear wasteto future generations. In the 1970s the United States and its allies were in a ColdWar with the Soviet Union. Germany was at the center of the Cold War as acountry divided between east and west. Concerns grew about whether Germanymight be used as a base for nuclear missiles and whether it would becomeground zero in a conflict. Anti-nuclear protesters marched against the stationingof nuclear weapons and the construction of nuclear power plants in Germany.These movements became the basis for the emergence of Germany’s verysuccessful Green Party, the first political party to openly take an anti-nuclearstance. After the Chernobyl nuclear accident, support for nuclear energy inGermany dropped sharply. The Social Democratic Party responded by callingfor a phase out of nuclear energy. With both the Green Party and the SocialDemocratic Party opposed to nuclear energy, the days of nuclear energy becamenumbered.The conservative political parties, the Christian Democratic Union, theChristian Socialist Union, and the Free Democratic Party continued to supportnuclear energy arguing that German safety standards were very high and thechances of a nuclear accident in Germany extremely small. They also tried tofind new ways to support nuclear energy linking its use to efforts to controlclimate change.The election of a Social Democraticy Party-Green Party coalition in 1998opened the door for the first nuclear phase out law in 2001. A decade later,however, a conservative government coalition tried to slow down the nuclearphase out linking the extension of the operating time of Germany’s nuclearpower plants to a new climate and energy plan with ambitious renewable energytargets. This policy may have stayed in place had it not been for the Fukushimanuclear accident. The Fukushima nuclear accident brought back memories ofChernobyl and strengthened societal opposition to nuclear energy. The Germangovernment reached a second decision to phase out nuclear energy in 2011.The main differences with the earlier phase out law are that this one led tothe immediate shut down of the 8 oldest nuclear power plants and scheduled theshut down of the remaining nine nuclear power plants by 2022. Thegovernment’s decision to phase out nuclear energy was supported by the work ofan Ethics Commission for a Safe Energy Supply. An important argument madeby the commission for the phase out of nuclear energy is that safer forms of lowcarbon energy are available. An energy transition to a renewable energydominated system would lead to the development of a system that is less conflictridden and can provide the world with a new energy model