I support quick nuclear exit of Germany

The nuclear frenzy that has unleashed shortly after the highly unfortunate events in Japan earlier this spring has been making headlines for weeks. Concerns about nuclear energy usage were raised in many countries, including the leading European economy – Germany. There is a strong anti-nuclear movement demanding full and fast nuclear exit of Germany, supported by many people around the world – including me.

In the last weeks, Germany finally announced a major turn in their nuclear policy, shutting down seven of the nuclear power stations in Southern Germany and full nuclear exit by 2020 is being discussed.

But it’s not all about Germany these days. We live in a globalized world, where information spreads at the speed of light and so do nuclear concerns, supported by the Japanese disaster. In USA, reactor checks were ordered by the regulator and nuclear safety became a major issue. Stress tests were and will be undertaken in majority of the European countries.

There’s a whole new “Say no to nuclear energy” movement in the EU, Austria traditionally leading the green gang. Atomic energy, risks, nuclear disaster emergency plans and other related topics have been making the headlines of European papers for weeks.

I live in the Czech Republic, just North of the Austrian border. We operate two nuclear power plants ourselves, which amount to about one third of the energy produced in the country.

Now, what happened in the Czech Republic regarding the reborn anti-nuclear wave is: nothing. Clearly, Japanese events were mentioned in the news. The group of dedicated illuminati, who represent what was left of the Green party after it got wiped out of the parliament in the elections last year, was crying out all of those “evil”-s and “dangerous”-s. And was left perfectly unheard by both media and general public.

You see, Czechs are used to making their own mind on different issues (after having lived under the reign of propaganda for years) and both media and politicans traditionally are distrusted. Czechs seem to think rather rationally than emotionally and there rarely is any news which would bring the angry mob into the streets. Thank god, same applies to this green rage.

The truth is, we love our nuclear power plants. There has never been a strong anti-nuclear movement in the country. Furthermore, given our geographic location, the words “sea” (leave away “tsunami”) and “earthquake” are a rather distant reminiscence of something we might have once seen on the TV.

Also, we happen to have the third largest solar power plant output installed in Europe. The “solar fields” are pretty much everywhere in this country, thanks to the overly-generous governmental subsidies which made them one of the most profitable and extremely low-risk investments available. And we hate them – they take away our tax money through subsidies and destroy the scenery.

Having said all that, I would like to state that I fully support the “fast nuclear exit” movement in Germany. I very much support Austria’s stance on not producing nuclear power at all! I very much appreciated that Germany shut down the aforementioned reactors.

You see, the decision to shut the reactors down might have caused blackout in Southern Germany, if there wasn’t for electricity import.

Luckily, we, the friendly neighbours, were ready to help by exporting our own production (the irony in that is, as I said, that about 33% of the energy production of the country comes from its nuclear power stations). CEZ, the government-owned energy producer, clearly was rather happy about the German decision, as it always welcomes opportunities that bring profit.

Given that CEZ is state-owned and therefore part of its profits goes back to the government, I can’t but support the German decision – governmental funds which do not come from my taxes make me happy. Also, thanks to the fact that there is no real chance of Czech Republic shutting down any of its nuclear plants (rather, there are plans for enlargement), I say go Germany!