Germany steadfast against nuclear energy
2013-01-04 18:06
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Berlin - German Environment Minister Peter Altmaier said on
Friday his country would never again return to nuclear energy, hitting back at
a top EU official who doubted Berlin's commitment to phase out nuclear power.
"I cannot see any plausible political line-up that
would enable a revival of nuclear power in Germany," Altmaier told
Friday's edition of the Leipziger Volkszeitung regional daily.
After the 2011 Fukushima disaster in Japan, Germany
embarked on an ambitious "energy revolution", deciding to phase out
its nuclear power plants by the end of 2022 and bolster renewable sources of
energy such as solar and wind power.
However, concerns have mounted that this would entail a
sharp rise in electricity prices amid difficulties in building a network able
to transmit energy from the North Sea coast to the energy-hungry south of the
country.
The EU’s Energy Commissioner, Guenther Oettinger, told
Monday's edition of the Rheinische Post regional daily that there would
"still be nuclear power on the German network in 40 years."
He said there were still 140 nuclear power stations in
Europe and that nuclear fusion technology was progressing rapidly.
"Maybe this technology will one day be accepted in
Germany," said Oettinger, himself German.
Altmaier also vowed to find a permanent national storage
site for nuclear waste by 2030.
"We are together looking country-wide," he
said, adding that the search would be accelerated in the coming years.
The search would be "co-financed and jointly carried
out" by Germany's nuclear energy companies, he said.
- SAPA
