German environment minister Norbert Rottgen announced on May 30, 2011 that the 17-strong German nuclear power plant fleet will be decommissioned by 2022. “The seven oldest reactors that have been placed under a moratorium and the Kruemmel nuclear power plant won’t go back online. “A second group of six nuclear power plants will go offline at the end of 2021 at the latest and the three most modern power plants will go offline 2022 at the latest,” he confirmed.
In 1998 the German government took the decision to phase out nuclear power, Chancellor Merkel reversed this decision when she came into office in 2009, introducing a law to extend the life of the existing plants by up to 12 years. . German nuclear plants currently take care of 23% of Germany’s total electricity production.