Energy: Germany, Swiss To End Nuclear Power

The Fukushima nuclear disaster has dealt more body blows to the uranium and nuclear power industries.

In decisions that will send tremors through the uranium and nuclear industries, the German and Swiss governments have decided to end all nuclear power in the two countries.

No matter what Australian companies like Paladin Energy might claim, these decisions are body blows to the future growth for uranium here and offshore.

The German government announced yesterday that 8 of the country's 17 reactors shut down after the Fukushima crisis erupted after the March 11 quake and tsunami will not be restarted.

The government says the remainder will be shut down between now and 2022.

The Government had previously decided to allow the plants to operate until 2036.

The Swiss government said at the weekend that it would phase out nuclear power by 2034.

That will mean three new nuclear power stations that were planned over the next two decades, now won't be built.

The decision will also require the close of five nuclear power stations that currently supply 40% of the country's power. That will be made up by retaining hydro power currently exported into western Europe as so-called green energy.

The German decision, announced by Environment Minister Norbert Roettgen, came after a meeting of leaders of the ruling coalition headed by Chancellor Angela Merkel, which lasted from Sunday evening into the early hours of Monday.

It will make Germany the first major industrial power to give up atomic power.

Germany took the decision despite the International Energy Association warning last week that such a move would add 25 million tonnes a year to the country's carbon emissions.

Japan has already revealed it is dropping its 2010 plan to halve its power generated by nuclear power by 2030.

Italy has shelved plants for four nuclear power plants by 2030 and two power stations in Texas have been abandoned by a private power company in the US.

Japan's nuclear plants currently supply about 30% of the country's electricity, and the government had planned to raise that to 50%.

Up to two thirds of the current 54 reactors will be offline or shut for inspection in the next couple of months.

The Fukushima plant and its six reactors have been lost.

The Hamaoka complex of Chubu electric and its five reactors is being shutdown.

Two reactors will be taken out of service completely, three others are shut until the owner strengthens tsunami protection and other safety procedures (The plant is the most vulnerable in Japan to a quake/tsunami)

The driver for these decisions is the crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi power station complex north east of Tokyo.

The crisis has all but bankrupted its owners, Tokyo Electric Power Co, which is being kept alive by emergency loans (totalling $24 billion) and the implicit support of the Japanese government.

Already we have learned in the past week that partial meltdowns of the nuclear fuel happened in three, perhaps four of the reactors after March 11.

The 5th reactor, idled for maintenance before March 11, experienced an alarming rise in temperature on the weekend after a cooling pump stopped for no reason.

That pump has been replaced and the cooling reactivated.

And now Tepco has sprung a major surprise by suggesting the stabilising of the crisis will not happen by the end of this year, as the company had confidently been forecasting.

The company now says it is coming to the view that it will be impossible to stabilise the crisis by the end of this year. As yet now new deadline has been suggested.

This means that the future of the more than 100,000 people evacuated from the area (with more underway) remains uncertain.

The situation is heartbreaking: farmers have lost their livelihoods with their animals starving to death or being culled because they are irradiated. People still inside the evacuation zone are refusing to leave their animals (and domestic pets) or older family members.

No wonder Fitch cut Japan's credit rating outlook on the basis of its growing concerns about the cost and the impact of Fukushima on Japan.