By

our dpa-correspondent and Europe Online
  
    

Berlin (dpa) – Germany‘s oldest nuclear reactor was to be shut down
permanently overnight, its owner E.ON said Saturday, marking a
milestone in the country‘s drive for clean and sustainable energy.

The 34-year-old Grafenrheinfeld reactor, located in northern Bavaria,
will be completely out of service on Sunday, according to E.ON, which
is abiding by legislation that requires the closure of all commercial
nuclear reactors by 2022.

In its heyday, the reactor covered 11.5 per cent of the electricity
needs of Bavaria, a state with 12.5 million inhabitants.

The so-called Energiewende, best translated as energy transition,
calls for at least 80 per cent of power to come from renewable
sources by 2050. E.ON is one of several companies to have recorded
billions of dollars in losses as a result of the policy.

The energy shift was accelerated in 2011 after the nuclear disaster
in Fukushima, Japan. Eight reactors were shut down immediately, while
the remaining plants are to be shut down in the coming seven years.

Though Germany has already made significant strides in clean energy
generation – it has expanded its green power supply to account for a
quarter of its electricity – the Energiewende is a highly ambitious
undertaking.

The question of whether Germany can reach its 2050 goal has been
hotly debated, especially in light of the Russia-Ukraine conflict as
a threat to the country‘s largest single source of natural gas.

 



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