“Probable Game-Changer”: Special issue of Bulletin of Atomic Scientists shows exiting nuclear power brings economic and environmental benefits — ‘Startling’ findings

Title: Bulletin: German nuclear exit delivers economic, environmental benefits
Source: Phys.org
Date: November 1, 2012

[...] Forbes.com went as far as to ask, in a headline, whether [Germany's exit from nuclear power after the Fukushima disaster] was “Insane—or Just Plain Stupid.”

But a special issue of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, published by SAGE, “The German Nuclear Exit,” shows that the nuclear shutdown and an accompanying move toward renewable energy are already yielding measurable economic and environmental benefits, with one top expert calling the German phase-out a probable game-changer for the nuclear industry worldwide. [...]

Freie Universität Berlin politics professor Miranda Schreurs says the nuclear phase-out and accompanying shift to renewable energy have brought financial benefits to farmers, investors, and small business;

Felix Matthes of the Institute for Applied Ecology in Berlin concludes the phase-out will have only small and temporary effects on electricity prices and the German economy;

University of Kassel legal experts Alexander Rossnagel and Anja Hentschel explain why electric utilities are unlikely to succeed in suing the government [...]

Lutz Mez, co-founder of Freie Universitӓt Berlin’s Environmental Policy Research Center, presents what may be the most startling finding of all. [...] “It has actually decoupled energy from economic growth, with the country’s energy supply and carbon-dioxide emissions dropping from 1990 to 2011, even as its gross domestic product rose by 36 percent.”

“Probable Game-Changer”: Special issue of Bulletin of Atomic Scientists shows exiting nuclear power brings economic and environmental benefits — ‘Startling’ findings