Siemens Ditches Nuclear
This came as a big, positive surprise to me — the German giant Siemens, which has built numerous nuclear power plants, has decided to completely ditch nuclear, meaning that it won’t be helping to build or finance any more nuclear power plants.
Of course, Siemens is following in the footsteps of its parent country, which decided this year to drop nuclear out of its energy mix within about 10 years.
On the stunning decision, Peter Löscher, the CEO of Siemens, told German media company Der Spiegel: “The chapter for us is closed.” He also said that Siemens would focus a lot on renewable energy.
This just demonstrates to me the power of national policies like Germany’s to dump nuclear. I don’t think Siemens would have made this decision so soon if it weren’t for that. Löscher actually called Germany’s decision to phase out nuclear “the project of the century” and said that Siemens’ decision was a response to “the clear positioning of German society and politics for a pullout from nuclear energy.” (Note that Siemens built all of Germany’s 17 nuclear power plants.)
However, it also shows what I’ve mentioned many times on here: nuclear, despite the nuclear industry hype, is probably on its way out. We’ve seen that trend for awhile and with the costs of nuclear rising and the costs of renewable energy dropping, it is no surprise.
Siemens had a joint venture in the works with Russian nuclear firm Rosatom that involved building, installing, and servicing nuclear projects there and in other countries. This joint venture has been dropped now.
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