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Hexokinope t1_j4zomeb wrote

Reply to comment by Yarasin in Germany says it is no longer reliant on Russian energy by scot816

Excellent points. Germany (and Japan) are different though because they're sitting on many perfectly functional nuclear plants that used to supply much of their electricity until people freaked out about Fukushima and governments replaced it cheap coal and a mix of other fossil fuels which is obviously awful across the board for everything but cost. Germany and Japan could easily slash their emissions and gain more energy independence just by turning them back on. It hasn't been that long either, so they still have much of the needed expertise.

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Yarasin t1_j4zq8mm wrote

The anti-nuclear sentiment is much older than Fukushima, going back to the 80s and earlier. An official exit was already ratified in the late 90s/early 00s, but then Merkel and the CDU unilaterally decided to stop it due to lobbying from energy producers. It was only picked up again when Fukushima lit a fire under her ass and she caved to public pressure.

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Hexokinope t1_j4zr2wr wrote

I'm not sure what point you're trying to make? Obviously there's a longer history behind the nuclear power opposition (the bit on the Sierra Club in Freakonomics ep 516 is quite interesting), but Fukushima was the trigger that caused the CDU to cave (and Japan's LDP to reverse course). More to the point, they can restart their reactors to both dramatically cut CO2 emissions and to reduce reliance on foreign fossil fuels with minimal lead time.

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