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Sydney – Germany will close down all of its nuclear power plants by 2022, according to reports out Monday, as fallout from Japan’s disaster continues more than two months after the event.
“There will be no clause for revision,” Germany’s Environment Minister Norbert Rottgen said, according to a BBC report.
The German government had been reviewing the role of nuclear power in the country’s electricity needs after an earthquake and tsunami crippled Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex in March.
The power station‘s operator and the Japanese government are still struggling to control the situation at the reactors.
Tokyo Electric Power Co., or Tepco — operator of the Fukushima Daiichi plant — won’t be able to stabilize all reactors at the complex this year, Kyodo News reported Monday, citing senior officials. See report on outlook to contain Japanese nuclear reactors.
Tepco said in April it was aiming to bring the reactors at the plant into cold shutdown, or a stably cooled condition, within six to nine months.
Japan is currently facing power shortages, as nuclear energy provided around 30% of the country’s electricity needs before the disaster.
Germany isn’t as dependent on nuclear power as Japan had been, although the technology provides just over one-fifth of the country’s electricity, the reports said.
China is also reportedly reviewing its nuclear energy policy after the disaster.
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