German Chancellor Gerhard Schroder and representatives from leading utilities are expected to sign an agreement today to phase out nuclear power within 25 years. The government has taken steps to ensure that the country’s greenhouse gas emissions decline, even as nuclear power is taken away from the electricity grid. It wants renewable energy to account for 10 percent of the country’s energy supply by 2010 and 50 percent by 2050, and it has established an “eco-tax” meant to encourage conservation by making fossil fuels more expensive. Anti-nuke activists, meanwhile, say the deal being signed today won’t shut the nuclear industry down quickly enough.
