Germany shuts down its last three nuclear power plants

As of April 16, Germany is no longer producing any electricity from nuclear power plants.

Closures of the Emsland, Isar II, and Neckarwestheim II nuclear plants in Germany were expected, CNBC reports.

The country announced plans to phase out nuclear power in 2011. In the fall of 2022, with the Ukraine war constraining access to energy, especially in Europe, Germany decided to keep these existing nuclear reactors operating for an additional few months to bolster supplies.

“This was a highly anticipated action. The German government extended the lifetimes of these plants for a few months, but never planned beyond that,” David Victor, a professor of innovation and public policy at UC San Diego, told CNBC.

Responses to the closures ranged from aghast that Germany would shut down a clean source of energy production while the global response to anthropogenic climate change continues to be insufficient, to celebratory that the country will avoid any nuclear accidents like those that have happened in other parts of the world.