Sunday, April 16, 2023

Germany Closes Down Its Last Operating Nuclear Power Plants!

This is a great moment! The last three operating nuclear reactors in Germany shut down at midnight last night. Germany is still surrounded by reactors in other countries, but it's a start. It is deeply frustrating and offensive to hear the pro-nuclear lobby try to claim that they are environmentalists, saying that without nuclear more fossil fuel will be used. Fact is, it doesn't have to be a case of no nuclear meaning more coal or gas. Renewables are a large percentage of German power production, and increasing. But more to the point, we all need seriously to reduce our power consumption and find less-impacting ways of living. For the world to be manipulated by an industry that could mean mass devastation, and whose contaminations are legion, is obscene. So, we celebrate the closing of the plants. A serious step towards a safer planet.


Final Nuclear Power Plant Shutdowns in Germany: a heuristic for celebration

Energy consumption as fait accompli is the big stick 
those who would control us wield... Use less!


Neckarwestheim II nuclear reactor
shut down at midnight last night — froh!
Isar II nuclear reactor
shut down at midnight last night — froh!
Emsland nuclear reactor
shut down at midnight last night — froh!
It is raining today, but we probably won’t need to take iodine.
Under forests, roots say, No nuclear doesn’t foment coal mines.’
Neckarwestheim II nuclear reactor
shut down at midnight last night — glücklich!
Isar II nuclear reactor
shut down at midnight last night — glücklich!
Emsland nuclear reactor
shut down at midnight last night — glücklich!
From a beech tree, a blue jay makes a universal declaration.
‘One small step’ needs to be reclaimed. Recalibrate the slogans.
Neckarwestheim II nuclear reactor
shut down at midnight last night — hooray!
Isar II nuclear reactor
shut down at midnight last night — hooray!
Emsland nuclear reactor
shut down at midnight last night — hooray!
From the UK nuclear lobby we hear the specious tra-la-la of consumption:   

Neckarwestheim II nuclear reactor
shut down at midnight last night — hooray!
Isar II nuclear reactor
shut down at midnight last night — enfin!
Emsland nuclear reactor
shut down at midnight last night — endlich!
While French media trace the sadness of a nuclear town
in losing its raison d’être, we say, dance to Nena’s ’99 Luftballons’.


John Kinsella


Note: "Tom Greatrex, chief executive of the UK’s Nuclear Industry Association, said the phaseout would worsen carbon emissions and ‘for a country supposedly renowned for its logical and evidence-driven approach is environmentally damaging, economically illiterate and deeply irresponsible’". See The Guardian.


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