Fukushima explosions prompt German nuclear power review

For the safety reviews, operations at all nuclear power plants commissioned prior to 1980 are to be shut down. All others will be reviewed during normal operations.

German chancellor Angela Merkel also announced a three-month moratorium on a recently agreed extension to the operating lives of Germany’s nuclear power plants.

While the German Federal economics minister Rainer Brüderle did not believe that the temporary shutdown of some plants would jeopardise supplies, he did not discount the possibility that electricity prices might rise as a result.

At both European and international levels, Germany is pressing to have current safety standards reviewed. Merkel announced that she would be pushing for uniform and rigorous standards within both the European Union and the G20.

Seven of Germany’s nuclear power plants were commissioned prior to 1980: Biblis A and B in Hesse, Neckarwestheim I and Philipsburg I in Baden-Württemberg, Brunsbüttel in Schleswig-Holstein, Isar I in Bavaria and Unterweser in Lower Saxony.