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Thousands Protest Against German Nuclear Plan
BERLIN - Tens of thousands demonstrated in Berlin Saturday against the government's proposal to extend the life of Germany's nuclear power plants for another decade or more.
Anti-nuclear protesters demonstrate at the Reichstag building during a demonstration against German government's energy policy at the governmental district in Berlin, September 18, 2010. The Reichstag is the seat of the German lower house of parliament Bundestag, the sentence on the banner reads "Enough of this crap". (REUTERS/Thomas Peter) Waving banners and balloons marked with the slogans of the anti-nuclear movement, they turned out in force to protest outside Chancellor Angela Merkel's headquarters.
The organisers -- environmental groups backed by left-leaning opposition parties -- put their numbers at 100,000, though police made it 37,000.
Special trains and 150 buses had been chartered to bring the demonstrators to Berlin from all over Germany.
Merkel's centre-right coalition on Sunday agreed to lift the deadline of 2022 for the phasing out of nuclear power set by an earlier Social Democrat-led government.
The new plan would extend the lifetime of Germany's 17 nuclear reactors for an average of 12 years beyond the previously scheduled shutdown.
Calculations in the German media suggest that the last plant will not be switched off until 2040, and critics say that operators may get away with keeping some running for even longer than that.
The government says the plan is necessary to maintain electricity supply until other renewable energy resources become available.
Even if the extension becomes law, the opposition Social Democrats (SPD), co-authors with the Greens of 2000's decision to exit nuclear power, said they will reverse Merkel's changes if they return to office.
With no permanent storage site for radioactive waste in place and fears about a repetition of a disaster in Germany like the Chernobyl meltdown in Ukraine in 1986, polls indicate a majority of voters oppose an extension.
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10 Comments so far
Show AllNuclear Power is the great beast mankind can't control but persists in using....
Any species given enough rope will fuck it up....
Welcome to the Right Wing future and Ridley Scott's vision in Bladerunner doesn't look so futuristic......
tHinkIngoUtsIde
"The palms of legislators have been greased by nuclear industry lobbyists to keep these old plants in operation, and they are a major accident waiting to happen."
They will die alonside us.. Not much consolation, but still.
They really would have to be blinded by $$omething not to 'see' this.
~sc
http://www.care2.com/greenliving/portugal-close-to-45-renewable-electricity.html
it can be done without nuclear power.................
Renewable energy is being killed by the same people who killed the electric car, the same people who march us to perpetual war.
We are really no different than Germany. At least their Media covers their protests, ours in America seem only interested in the Tea Party.We too have old, and decaying Nuclear Plants. For some reason of insane greed, that goes so far beyond human decency,these men actually create so much pollution they can never be certain as to wether their own children, and grandchildren will not be ,playing, swimming, eating and drinking from these toxins that fill almost every inch of our water ,land and air. They are willing to take the chance of their own families getting Cancer, and a host of other problems. Yes, years ago they could keep their families up on the hill, but pollution is everywhere now. They are killing each others families I guess.
We as a society are seeming to be more, and more like we are suicidal, because we all have known that there are much safer, and cleaner, and cheaper ways of fueling our lives, but we keep letting these money monger heartless men, poisen our families. How can we allow this, when we know it is killing the whole Planet in one way or another.
At best there is only a hundred years of oil left, and that is not much time, but that is a whole lot of pollution ! Is it really worth it to drill to the last drop ? Doesn't it make far more sense to begin a rapid turn over towards clean energy, and then as the technology improves we can fade out oil all together.
We are supposed to learn from History, not repeat our mistakes, do it smarter the second time around...all these sayings, words of wisdom. All being ignored. What good is all the technology that lead us up to this point, if we just waist it on foolishness and old Bigotries, and Superstitions.
We were given the BEST brains this Planet has ever known...there must be a reason for that, and I just find it too hard to believe that it was for nothing...so we could poisen the Earth, and slowly die out from Wars, and sickness. No I believe we have a future, and if those people that know this too, would speak up, and say that they want us as a species to live long,and travel years into the future, and live as we were intended to live in Harmony and Peace, with respect for each other, and we would have the glorious Earth, and Universe that is all ours to explore for centuries to come.
Or is the other way the way the Bible people want...were we destroy each other and the few that are left can go to Alaska and worship their God for 1,000 years. I think that version sucks !
Whatever happens it is in our hands and up to us.
May the best Plan Win !!!
"Doesn't it make far more sense to begin a rapid turn over towards clean energy, and then as the technology improves we can fade out oil all together."
The "technology" is available already and doesn't need significant improvement...it just needs to be built on a scale large enough to convince the skeptics beyond a shadow of a doubt, and deployed massively during the next ten years and beyond, requiring investment costs which are only a fraction of either nuclear or coal based electricity production, with an operating cost free from either: 1) any type of mineral mining expense, or 2) any greenhouse gas emissions.
Please see http://vortexengine.ca and contact the owner of AVEtec if you would like to become a partner, getting this technology moving while getting this whole argument off "dead-center".
& all this is about ingratiating about 1% of the world's population and their need for greed.....
The sign actually reads 'Stop With the Shit!'