Nuclear reaction

21 March 2011 By Pierre Briancon

Many European governments are getting cold feet about nuclear energy after the Japanese disaster. At the very least, existing plans to invest in nuclear power will be subject to delay. Longer term, the EU’s energy mix is likely to change and bring new costs.

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German chancellor Angela Merkel on March 14 imposed a threemonth moratorium on the extension of lifetimes for the country's 17 nuclear power stations, reversing the policy she had decided on last year.

Merkel also decided to close down the seven nuclear plants that had been built before 1980, pending a threemonth review. "We can't simply continue as normal. The events in Japan teach us that something that by all scientific benchmarks was considered impossible can actually occur", she said.

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