Abstract :
Among major industrialized nations, Germany has long stood out for its deep ambivalence about nuclear power. So it wasn´t much of a surprise when, two months after the Fukushima crisis began, Environment Minister Norbert Rottgen announced that Germany would shut down all its nuclear plants by 2022. And the phaseout began immediately: Rottgen declared that eight of the country??s oldest reactors, seven of which had been idled after Fukushima, would never go online again.
