[pacificmint]

> Germany, one of the most progressive nations on the earth, went and shut down all of its nuclear plants as a knee jerk reaction.

Anti nuclear sentiment had been building in Germany since at least the 70s. Then Chernobyl happened in 1986 and it got even stronger. It was part of what propelled the Greens into the administration 1998.

That administration reached an agreement for the nuclear exit in 2000 and the first plant went offline in 2003.

Merkels cabinet tried to extend the planned runtimes for the remaining plants, and it was that extension that was rolled backed after Fukushima.

Now, you can think that it was a big mistake, but it certainly was not a knee jerk reaction. It was a decision that was 50 years in the making.

[bratbag]

50 years of many individual short sighted knee jerk reactions.

[pydry]

It's wildly overpriced and never formed a huge part of Germany's electricity mix anyway.

Given the extortionate cost of building and maintenance and nonzero risks, its only really "benefit" is for the military industrial complex to keep a ready supply of nuclear skills and supply chains.

It's the latter that formed the basis of the American led PR campaign to shame Germany. Pioneering a low carbon zero nuclear generation mix was threatening to established nuclear. It had fuck all to do with the environment. None of them ever gave two shits about Poland's chronic coal addiction next door.