Swiss to Phase Out Nuclear Power

ZURICH—The Swiss government Wednesday decided to exit nuclear energy by phasing out the country's existing nuclear plants and seeking alternative energy sources to meet Switzerland's energy needs, in response to security concerns in the wake of Japan's nuclear disaster.

Switzerland is the second country in Europe after Germany to opt to drop nuclear energy as an electricity source after protests flared up amid fears that the reactor meltdown at Japan's Fukushima plant, which was hit by an earthquake and a tsunami in March, could be repeated elsewhere.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304520804576345300167187410.html?mod=WSJ_topics_obama

Much more at Reuters - apparently the phase out is from 2019-2034.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/25/us-swiss-nuclear-idUSTRE74O4R220110525

The question will be answered by the people at the ballots in the next 10 years. While this is good news, this is just a game played for the coming elections; anyone familiar with the Swiss political system will recognize that the Executive making such a (non)-decision doesn't mean that much at all, since curently there is no specific plant in planning. Basically, this is just theater for the election and has no consequences as of yet.

Oh, and: I'm glad to be in before that loveable "but their racists!!1!" subsection turned up.

After all... this isn't the first time they've done this. They voted a bit over a decade ago to shut down their plants - and then changed their minds when CO2 concerns outweighed nuclear paranoia.

Could easily happen again. IOW... yep, you're right. All theater.

That's what I thought.

Both Germans and the Swiss have shown that the path of active public opposition is what needs to be followed.

So when I say it is a good day NOW, I mean it. And just for the record, recall how you'd chortle and crow over the past 5 years every time there was a nuke industry press release that there was a hint that country X *might* be interested in building a nuclear plant. Never mind it was going to be more than 20 years in the future if it ever happened at all, that was PROOF (according to Baggins etal) that nuclear was going to take over the world...

It is time to organize against this hazard to humanity and its corrupting influence on the body politic.

I thought you said it was the Chinese who were showing the world the best path to follow?

recall how you'd chortle and crow over the past 5 years every time there was a nuke industry press release that there was a hint that country X *might* be interested in building a nuclear plant.

Why not just look at the ones that actually ARE building them?

The problem is that the intentions of the executive, which is all that was expressed today, doesn't mean squat when it comes to making policy in Switzerland. The question has yet to be settled at the ballots. All the statement of today really means is that the current administration of Switzerland will not ok a nuke-plant project before the next elections this fall. Those elections can change the makeup of the administration and therefore can change its intentions. Ultimately, it is up to parliament and the people to clearly express their will at the ballots in order to settle the question.

The current plants will go offline in about ten years. At best, todays statement by the administration means that up until then "they" (the power will be in the hands of different people by then, with different intentions) will not ok the construction of another plant. But what will happen once the plants go offline is an open question, to be decided by the guys who have the last word around here (or at least to a large extent) - which is the people who care to vote.

Didn't just just vote on the issue a month or two before Fukushima?

The last national (which is what counts mostly) initiative demanding a phasing out of nuclear plants was held in 2003 and was defeated 66% vs 33%... Right now, there is about a 70&-30% majority for phasing out (which is what the administration announced as current policy today, apparently). The current date for the beginning of phasing out the first plants is about 10 years from now. The majority against the construction of new nuclear plants in Switzerland will, absent some Fukushima-like event/renewed Fukushima event, certainly shrink constantly over the years. The "energy gap" bogeyman argument is very strong with the people here, since they are traditionally very fond of the illusion of Independence, and it might consolidate the pro-nuke faction over the next ten years. Very powerful people/circles in Switzerland are still very determined in their pro-nuke stance, among them the business elite which pretty much runs everything in this country that can't be influenced at the ballots.

I'd say that it is critical to get together a constitutional initiative forbidding the construction of new plants as soon as possible, as long as the current pro-phasing out majority is stable due to Fukushima. If that doesn't happen, the game is still open. As I wrote above, all the administration did today was declare their intention to not allow the construction of new plants, with the caveat of "every option will still be on the table" once the phasing out begins in 10 years. The Swiss people could easily be scared back into accepting nuclear energy as a viable option given enough time and monetary attention by the industry, which is already quite lavish and will certainly only increase after todays (non)decision.