Forty-one years ago on Sesame Street, Kermit the frog sang a plaintive song, “It’s not easy being green.”

In a gesture of solidarity, perhaps he should fax the lyrics to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose government is suddenly discovering the costs of weaning itself off nuclear energy.

In the wake of Fukushima, German Chancellor Angela Merkel announced on 30 May that Germany, the world's fourth-largest economy and Europe's biggest, would become the first industrialized nation to shut down all of its 17 nuclear power plants (NPPs) between 2015 and 2022, an extraordinary commitment, given that Germany’s 17 NPPS Germany produce about 28 percent of the country's electricity and that the country’s first NPP came online in 1969.

The seven nuclear power plants immediately shut down after Fukushima include Biblis A and B, Neckarwestheim 1, Brunsbuettel, Isar 1, Unterweser and Philippsburg 1 and the offline reactor in Kruemmel. The remaining nine to be shut down by 2022 are Grafenrheinfeld in 2015, Gundremmingen B in 2017, Philippsburg II in 2019, Grohnde, Brokdorf, and Gundremmingen C in 2021, Isar II, Neckarwestheim II and Emsland in 2022.
Full article at: Germany – It’s Not Easy Being Green