Germany shuts three nuclear power plants

Germany has pulled the plug on three of its last six nuclear power stations as it moves towards completing its withdrawal from nuclear power as it turns its focus to renewables.

Under Germany's energy transition policy, the Gundremmingen, Brokdorf, and Grohnde nuclear power plants will be decommissioned on December 31, 2021.

The Gundremmingen power plant still produces 10 billion kWh of power per year, though parts of it have already been shut down — enough to provide the entire Munich metropolitan region with electricity.

A target of protests by opposition to nuclear power in the 1980s, the Brokdorf plant will shut down at midnight on New Year's Eve, much to its overseers' disdain.

"The last few days have been accompanied by a fair amount of melancholy. We have operated the plant for 35 years. We looked after it, we kept it at the best technical level and we always operated it safely," revealed Guido Knott, chairman of the management board at the operating company PreussenElektra.

However, no melancholy or remorse was felt by Karsten Hinrichsen, a longtime anti-nuclear activist known as the "Brokdorf rebel".

"I am quietly but steadily rejoicing that the thing is now shut down. This is not euphoria. Some people ask me if this is a victory. No, it's not, it's taken far too long for that," Hinrichsen said.

By the end of 2022, Germany will have achieved its goal of completely phasing out nuclear power, set by Chancellor Angela Merkel on May 30, 2011.The plan represented a dramatic change of course by Merkel's ruling Conservatives, who just a few months earlier had agreed to extend the lifespan of Germany's oldest power stations.