Press release Bonn/Berlin, 13 April 2012 (translated from German)

Angela Merkel and Norbert Röttgen should leave no doubt in saying "NO"! to call for nuclear subsidies

Oliver Krischer, member of the German parliament who also is board member of EUROSOLAR Germany, on the request by four EU countries calling for support for nuclear power:

"What the nuclear-friendly governments of France, the UK, Czech Republic and Poland are actually admitting by their initiative in the EU is that building new nuclear power plants is no commercially feasible option. Despite all kinds of privileges and subsidies these have enjoyed for decades.

In doing so they, too, acknowledge officially what experts have known long since:

Nuclear power has no chance of surviving in a market economy, as the capital costs are much too high to be calculated. Even before the cost of a maximum credible accident, radioactive waste disposal and many other risks are taken into account it is no longer possible to refinance nuclear power plants in an increasingly flexible European electricity market.

The obvious question to ask is why should nuclear power be subsidized more heavily than is already done at present? The only answer can be because one thinks that nuclear power

1. is a sustainable form of power generation which leaves no environmental legacy to future generations whatsoever, and

2. becomes economical thanks to the additional subsidies eventually.

With respect to nuclear power and its history both these views seem thoroughly grotesque. This is not true of renewable forms of energy. Unlike nuclear power they prove to be sustainable and increasingly economical. Supporting them is the right thing to do therefore, and necessary, too.

Their answer must be unequivocal: chancellor Angela Merkel and environment minister Norbert Röttgen have to say "NO" to the request from the four EU countries.

Should they not do so, they will cast doubt on the German phase-out of nuclear energy and the transition to renewable energy. Moreover, they would confirm the impression of many in that, in truth, the federal government of Germany has not turned away from its nuclear reactors."

Oliver Krischer, member of the German parliament who also is board member of EUROSOLAR Germany

EUROSOLAR e.V.
The European Association for Renewable Energy
Kaiser-Friedrich-Strasse 11
53113 Bonn, Germany
Phone +49-228-362373
Fax +49-228-361213

www.eurosolar.org