More Thoughts on Germany, Russia, Natural Gas and Nuclear Energy

A friend of ours from Germany who works at the World Nuclear Association is wondering what the latest news on Russian natural gas might mean for the country of his birth:

I would like to close this blog by quoting a suggestion of how the German electricity supply could be made less dependent on foreign countries and in the same time avoid the dumping of large amounts of CO2 into our air. This quite bold suggestion was given - funnily enough - by the above quoted Reinhard Loske of the Green party - probably not intending to make a real suggestion by saying this but nevertheless:

In an article in the Braunschweiger Zeitung of November 8th 2005, he writes that "Should nuclear power seriously contribute to climate protection, more than 80 NPPs would have to be built in the next 40 years in Germany alone".

Well, I don't know where this number comes from, but this sounds like an interesting suggestion to me!

UPDATE: It looks like some of Germany's political leadership is thinking the same thing:

Germany will review plans to close nuclear power plants at a national summit after a dispute between Russia and Ukraine cut gas shipments to Europe, Economics Minister Michael Glos said.

"Russian gas supplies were reliable in the past," the lawmaker from the Christian Social Union said in a faxed statement. 'Yet we need a fundamental rethink how we can exploit energy available in Germany in the longer term." Chancellor Angela Merkel had already planned meetings with energy industry chiefs and a summit on energy policy in February or March.

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