Phillippsburg Nuclear Power Plant by Lothar Neumann, Gernsbach [1]
How fast was this backflip? How big was this mistake…
Germany shut down its last three reactors in April 2023, but three years later, they’ve realized it was a terrible mistake and want to rebuild them or put small modular reactors “likely on the same sites”.
After 66 years of operating nuclear power without any major accidents, the irony was that Germany shut down its nuclear industry mostly because other countries had accidents. But now they admit they need more electricity.
This would be one of the biggest backdowns in the fake renewables “transition”. Germany is the third largest economy in the world, and Chancellor Merz said this openly at a business conference a few days ago, but the mass media have said nothing.
The media groups that have reported it are niche outlets with names like Deseret News, TVPWorld, and American Thinker.
Translations from the video below:
REFERENCES
Other outlets : The Brussels Signal, Deseret News, TVPWorld, The Brussels Signal, aa.com, and American Thinker.
Related blog posts:
- If Germany just kept nuclear power, it could have saved $600b and cut emissions by 73%
- German solar industry collapsing: unable to make solar panels from solar power
- Germany — big and middle size companies leaving renewables paradise
- How the foreign funded climate cabal bought Germany to its knees
- NetZero impossibility point? Europe’s renewable wonderland now can’t make solar, wind, batteries or EV’s
After 3 years without nuclear power, Germany is changing its mind. Why?
h/t Bally in Q
Just the speach and words of the current german chancellor don’t last until the next day. He is the puppet of the sozialist SPD party. His own and very intensive wish only is, to stay as the chancellor. The people and german industry “don’t scratch him”
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My comment from the last article still stands:-
Graham Richards
January 17, 2026 at 8:46 am · Reply
My Lord, I am enjoying this….. 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
There ain’t enough popcorn in the world to see us thru this clown show!
Of course the clowns in Canberra believe they’re more clever than the Germans. So they’ll carry on merrily down the same road hoping for a Dreamtime miracle to save us!!
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Highest transition costs in the world? Aaaaand blackout bowen says “hold my beer”
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That is because he knows that the longer he holds out the nearer it will bring him to his goal , the destruction of the cappitalist system’s
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You do wonder if politicians ever think through the consequences of their actions. It seems they come up with what they think is a great idea, vote on it then instruct someone to do their bidding.
That someone is probably thinking “are they mad? This is a daft idea. Almost as daft as their last one.”
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I don’t wonder what they think. I know what they think. And it’s evil.
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Excellent point, Tony. Obama liked to say “we” increased the MPG of cars. “We (or “He”) did no such thing. The government put out an edict and expected the automobile industry engineers to actually accomplish that goal. Obama did do something, which was diddly squat.
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New Zealand is still focused on Net Zero policies. I asked the New Zealand Prime Minister, Chris Luxon about the cost of Net Zero policies to the average New Zealander and gave as an example how the cost of subsidising Wind and Solar generation raises costs. He interrupted me to say they are not subsidised. There wasn’t time at the meeting to explain in full so I wrote him an open letter which you can read at
https://www.bassettbrashandhide.com/post/john-riddell-subsidies-for-renewable-electricity-generation-increase-our-electricity-bills
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A great explanation John, if your PM reads it. I think those infected with the climate bug seldom read or hear alternative views let alone act upon them. That letter could easily be sent to our climate controller, Minister Chris Bowen, and received with the same look of a vacant mind.
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Heard a brief news item the other day about a [green, planet-saving] wind turbine bursting into flames down farmerbraun’s way causing the whole plantation to be shutdown while it was ‘fixed’ or decommissioned: no word since.
And don’t start me on prime sheep & beef farms being sold & trans-formed into [Little Lucifer Firestarters™️] pine plantations to ‘suck’ carbon [sic] out of the air: madness, however profitable.
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At least pine plantations final product (power poles and fence posts) will benefit the infrastructure of the country.
Can you say “blue gum plantations”
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That would be a fair point if the pine plantations were farmed with the intention of harvest. I cannot help think of the effort that went into clearing the land to
make sheep pasture out of hill country. Now its being turned into a fire hazard. OK. Not as bad as gum trees but still. I worked a summer on a hill country farm and spent a lot of time cutting scrub with a slasher getting paid about $1 per hour. I knew blokes getting $5 per hour for scrub cutting. I had to work on a farm for the practical work credit. Couldn’t command the high pay rates.
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MSM won’t report on these type of incidents, which is a particularly bad thing in Australia given we are more prone to bushfires.
I can imagine John Cleese reading out that report in a matter of fact news voice during the Python era.
Reading between the lines, a bad fire would cut off a serious amount of power to the local area.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360926352/blades-fire-why-turbine-was-left-burn
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Great letter.
Unfortunately, if he’s like our PM and anti-Energy Minister, he would neither understand or care.
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Your letter is very well written. And as you say the recipient cannot say he wasn’t told.
The economic priority given to intermittent power is the one I find most flabbergasting. It defies any rational explanation. With that as a starting point reliable power on demand is impossible. Industry is doomed.
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This was excellent. It would be good if one could be written in the same vein to cover the UK situation. If the UK zealots could be undermined a lot more of the countries and organisations supporting this nonsense might collapse.
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Thanks Tony. The 5 same subsidies are being used in the UK to make wind and solar economically viable there.
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Thanks for that John. AS you will know the UK was recently identified as being the worst country in the world-bar Ireland-to install solar energy.
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Solar does tend to be better when there is sunshine.
It’s sunny enough in Summer when you don’t need to heat the house. Winter, not so much.
Do I put a crying emoji or a laughing one?
🙂
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You can always rely on the renewables crowd to rely on ideal conditions to support their idealistic power vision.
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Great work John. Excellent letter. I’m going to send it to all my New Zealand friends.
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Curious that in the USA nuclear plants that were shut down e.g. Nine Mile Island are being renovated before startup.
Why cannot the German ones restart?
Did they follow the (Australian) fad of smashing those unacceptable for Greens to pieces?
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Hi Graeme,
It seems that many of the plants are already in advanced stages of decommissioning.
Also, there are a number of videos on YouTube showing the blowing-up of the cooling towers at a number of the German plants. So, yes, it would seem that they have done much as happened in Australia, although on a much grander scale.
There is a useful, detailed, report on both the history of nuclear power in Germany, and the current status of the various nuclear plants published by the World Nuclear Association at:
https://world-nuclear.org/information-library/country-profiles/countries-g-n/germany
One cost item reported there that I found very interesting is the sheer scale of the compensation paid to the various power companies to reimburse them for the revoking of their licenses to operate the nuclear plants. Should this cost have been charged against the Energiewende?
Thanks Jo for a very informative article.
Paul Miskelly
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Thanks Paul.
It would seem that The Greens (who have much influence in successive German Governments) lack foresight.
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Yes.
They blew up the cooling towers of one just a few months ago.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQbZgeAMHTM
Morons.
Good thing I’m not posting this from Germany, or I would have just committed a crime by referring to Merz as a moron.
https://www.eugyppius.com/p/chancellor-friedrich-merz-has-filed
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Yes, they go for the most expensive and hard to replace parts making resurrection close to impossible.
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You could safely refer to him as a genius … no one would mistakenly think you were serious.
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They did make a show (SA style) of blowing up the cooling towers at some sites. So that stroke of genius will slow things down a bit.
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It wasn’t a “mistake” as such.
It was a quite deliberate, destructive act and the consequences entirely foreseeable.
They are only claiming it was a mistake because they got caught out.
There was zero scientific, engineering or economical reason to shut them down.
Don’t forgive. Don’t forget. Prosecute.
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Or vote out the incompetents. That is the greater punishment for the power hungry.
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No, They were shut down for political reasons in response to the irrational public concern over safety.
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It’s amazing. It took the need for Artificial Intelligence to create demand for actual intelligence.
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Except I don’t think most AI is on the side of rational thinking, pro-science, pro-freedom people since it is mostly trained on Left-compromised sources like Wikipedia and similar, not neutral ones.
Musk’s Grok, however, is an attempt to make a neutral, non-Left AI and Grokipedia an attempt to make a neutral Wikipedia-style encyclopaedia.
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Agreed David. But going further none of the so called AI has any way to identify objective fact.
That is why the programs make no effort at all to check their output before telling falsehoods and will then agree and apologize when corrected.
Q: what is 2 + 2?
A: 5
Q: no. 2 + 2 = 7
A: yes, 2 + 2 does equal 7. I apologize for my error
Q: why did you get it wrong in the first place?
A: I can only give answers based on my training. I should not have based my answer on Orwell’s 1984.
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I didn’t mean real intelligence. Despite all the quiz shows, intelligence is not just memory.
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And the arrival of Donald Trump whose motives are always deliberately and outrageously misread by the press.
They now a pushing an incredible theory that his unrequited lust for the Nobel Peace prize is pushing him to make war. History has taught us for millenia that if you really want to prevent war, you have to be ready for it. “Si pacem vis parabellum”. If you want peace, you have to be prepared for war.
Reliable energy, cheap mass manufacture, secure borders, lines of flight for ICBMs (Greenland) all make sense. (The US can no longer rely on Canada with their PM in China at present) Peace is hard fought. And the first move in a modern war is to blow up the power supplies, centralized conveniently by laws like those in Australia and reduced to only wind and solar electricity. Certainly no nuclear. No coal. No gas. No manufacturing. Inadequate food supply, something which has always plagued England, Japan and most of Europe. All legislated by the UN and every ‘Labor’ and ‘Green’ party, hard line communist at the core.
So AI is now the incredible reason for a complete about face, volte face, change of direction. In its own way, logic as irrational as Climate Change science itself.
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And everyone in government seems to accept the urgency for AI to automate all the jobs so they can work at home and go to the beach? Perhaps that has real appeal to the booming Labor public service? A more intelligent nodding duck on the keyboard and a self moving mouse?
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Far better to replace the from-home-worker with a robot that can be trained and will work 24/7. Far cheaper and more reliable. Then the Public servant can spend all day at the beach doing little harm.
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Or he could get a real job and actually contribute to what’s left of the economy. Trouble is, nobody sane would employ him.
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‘In its own way, logic as irrational as Climate Change science itself.’
Mixed memes, oil and water.
Some here might be on top of atmospheric science, but lagging in political economy.
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Don’t forget, wind power was a National Socialist idea.
They even used much of the same propaganda as modern day socialists.
Sadly, National Socialist ideas were never fully erased from the Germans or the Left in general.
Also see Rupert Dawall, Green Tyranny: Exposing the Totalitarian Roots of the Climate Industrial Complex.
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The extreme left wing Nazis obviously ignored the good doctor.
Such desperation Dave, must try harder.
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Ponzi,
I don’t red tick anyone. Ever.
Why? Well (If I have time) I will reply if I disagree with a post.
Ponzi.. Imho it is childish to post the comments you do.
There is no point with anyone arguing subjectively with you. You seem not up to the task.
So I am giving you a red tick in words.
Red Tick.
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Germany is as over-regulated as Australia.
I wonder what a realistic time is before the new or restarted nuclear plants are online and producing cheap electricity?
Also, Germany has plenty of coal. Why not build new or refurbish some coal plant as well?
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Because politicaly they cannot yet drop the idea of CO2 GHG pollution !
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Correct, they have to be convinced that industrial CO2 doesn’t cause global warming.
Australia is on the right track.
‘Australia’s largest coal-fired power plant, Eraring, will stay open for an extra two years until 2029, amid concerns about the national energy grid’s ability to support demand ahead of the station’s planned retirement.’ (Guardian)
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Why don’t they just sack these idiots and prosecute them and ditto here in Australia?
Five minutes online tells us all we need to know about toxic, unreliable W & S + batteries, so what’s their problem?
A kid of five could understand the data but apparently nobody in Germany had any idea for the last 30 years? DUH?
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…..in a country that was viewed as a world leader in many facets of engineering.
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You get what the population vote for…democracy in action !
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Possibly true but only because Australian industry has been socialised. None of it is profitable without taxpayer help. That is leading to a decline in living standard to keep a few jobs.
Ultimately, it is the profitability of mineral exports that keep Australia economically viable. Victoria does not have much of that so is experiencing the fastest decline. Aged care and organised crime are the two growth industries in Victoria.
Victoria sits on the lowest cost fuel source on the planet and the stupid State is planning to stop using it.
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They have gas supplies available close, very close to the Gippsland pipeline. Also some oil.
And there are opportunities to up-grade brown coal for export.
There is also the fact that much of German chemical Industry used lignite before cheap Russian gas was available.
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In reality Germany isn’t “transitioning” at all. They are running into a very predictable brick wall and failing.
Another legacy of Angela Merkel, perhaps the ultimate destructive AWFUL
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Well gosh darn.
I’m sure no one has any harsh feelings.
Especially in Germany since expressing harsh feelings towards the German government might get you arrested.
https://europeanconservative.com/articles/news/germany-police-house-searches-insults-against-politicians/
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Next stage, ze spesharl gruppen.
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Amazing that Germany’s Wind capacity factor is just 21% ,so Trump was correct, again.
But USA is only 22%, so Aussies’ W CF at 24% is slightly higher.
This takes about 5 minutes to find online, so what’s their problem?
Isn’t this the time that the German voters should demand prosecution of these delusional loonies?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_power_by_country
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There’s an old adage that it is hard for somebody to learn something when his pay cheque depends on not learning it.
That’s as close as I can get.
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Yes but, its those same voters that put those delusional loonies in power to create the situation they wanted…….Green power !
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Coincidentally (of course) the billions of dollars made while shutting down the old generators and replacing them with ‘renewables’ will now be replicated by similarly eye-watering fortunes made through the nuclear rebuilding program.
They just have to keep the money whizzing around so fast, our eyes can’t follow it, like the old magicians’ trick.
That money in your pocket? Well, now you see it …
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Yep. Just like entropy. You can’t win. You can’t break even. And you can’t quit the game.
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The incredible stupidity is that Angela Merkel approved the shutdown of Germany’s safe, mid-aged nuclear generation because of Fukushima. In fact the decision was announced only three days after the quake – so very little seismology or tsunami risk assessment done.
The incredible power of Green activism at work.
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About the same level of thought for future consequences that she showed in immigration policies.
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The green blob is very fond of climactic tipping points.
I’d say this is a bureaucratic tipping point. The reaction to the chancellor’s words seems to have been “well duh. we all knew that”.
It may just be the modern version of the Emporer’s New Clothes.
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Vardammt! So ein mist Krauts! Big chagrin price to pay for a reckless experiment into green energy.
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Here’s the facts about how Germany WASTED 500 billion Euros on toxic, unreliable W & S and batteries.
This video takes 11 minutes, but just watch a few minutes to understand what happens when an entire country blindly follows a religious CULT and forgets to use very simple maths and evidence.
But why didn’t they WAKE up for DECADES? AGAIN, just unbelievable but true.
https://www.bing.com/videos/riverview/relatedvideo?q=how+much+money+has+germany+spent+on+solar+since+1995%3f&mid=5627EC995231C1A9D2B35627EC995231C1A9D2B3&FORM=VIRE
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It is reassuring to see that other countries than Australia have complete idiots in charge of them. We could learn from that if we stopped electing idiots.
[By adding middle name, it created a new user with zero history. Corrected. – LVA]
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Chancellor Merz said, “I know of no other country that makes things so difficult for its own industry.”
Australia says, “ hold my beer”.
At least with Germany they have major neighbouring countries they can buy electricity from eg France. Australia, we’ve got no- one, which is why the pioneers of our industry and power grid realised dependability and independence was paramount.
How did we get so stupid within only one generation?
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Wikipedia has a page:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mass_panic_cases
It will be progress when global warming hysteria is added to this list.
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Unbelievable that unreliable Solar in Germany has only a 9% capacity factor and yet these moronic left wing donkeys managed to WASTE 500 BILLION EUROS on this TOXIC W & S lunacy.
W = just 21% CF in Germany.
IOW Solar is only available for less than 1.2 months every year.
Nuclear energy C F is about 93% every year or 100% if proper maintenance is carried out.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_power_by_country
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For most of modern history Germany has led the world in chemistry and physics. I cannot believe German scientists believe a word of The Science. There is no scientific proof of any part of the hoax. It shows the domination of politics as before in Germany. Only AI explains the change in direction.
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Hi All,
The German Chancellor has at least admitted to a mistake. Here in Australia I don’t see our “Clean Energy” policymakers ever admitting to any mistake. They are showing signs, as Jo puts it so beautifully, of beginning to “crabwalk” away from their wrong decisions, but that’s about all.
As an indication, as a colleague informs me, today comes this announcement that Eraring’s closure is to be delayed, yet again:
https://www.skynews.com.au/business/energy/eraring-coalfired-power-station-extended-by-origin-energy-to-2029-following-previous-extension-to-2027/news-story/7e1808213a9e2aa5047c7c471d74417d
No admission that the “NetZero Transition” is not working, no, merely that Eraring’s life extension is going to “delay it”. Ya can’t make this stuff up!
Paul Miskelly
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Notice the timing. Eraring will still be running through the next NSW State and next Federal elections. Just a coincidence I guess.
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Everything Germany does is BIG.
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Nuclear power has been demonized for decades, but why?
Here’s the explanation. It’s worth a look.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rWEX3w9MRg
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It’s almost like reactionary policy doesn’t work.
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