Mo, Aug 29th 2022
The electricity the Kernkraftwerk plant in Leibstadt generates makes a substantial contribution towards Switzerland’s energy supply.
A group of Swiss politicians announced this week that they will petition the government from closing nuclear reactors – a move they say that will help Switzerland avoid energy outages in the future.
Switzerland’s looming energy crisis
Switzerland produces more energy than its population can consume most of the year; but, relies on imports from neighboring countries through the winter. Heating alone accounts for more than 75 percent of the energy consumed in winter.
The Swiss government last week angekündigt that residents should “prepare for blackouts” by stockpiling candles, firewood, food and gas cookers. The country may resort to using rolling four-hour regional blackouts this winter if efforts to conserve energy do not meet certain thresholds, they warned.
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The Swiss government said this week it will reveal a plan to reduce natural gas consumption by 15 percent from October 2022 to the end of March 2023. It is expected that the bulk of the plan will rely on businesses’ and consumers’ conservation efforts.
The ‘Stop Blackouts’ plan can be found at stop-au-blackout.ch und blackout-stoppen.ch.
‘There is another way’
The new group, called ‘Stop Blackouts,’ says that a lot of turmoil could be avoided if the government would quash a 2017 decision to close all five of its nuclear reactors. The 2017 decision to move away from nuclear energy was driven by safety concerns following the 2011 nuclear disaster in Fukushima, Japan. One reactor has already been shut down.
“We cannot do without nuclear power plants,” Vanessa Meury, Stop Blackouts president told local newspaper SonntagsZeitung. Five of the six Stop Blackouts committee members are made up of center and right-wing politicians. Meury is the only member who is not a politician.
“Until recently, Switzerland had safe and virtually CO₂-free electricity production: the environmentally and climate-friendly combination of hydro and nuclear power is to be abandoned for no reason at all,” reads the Stop Blackouts website.
Stop Blackouts is also seeking to change the Swiss constitution so that the federal government would be officially responsible for ensuring the country’s energy supply through “any form of climate-friendly electricity generation.”
Germany has historically relied on imports from Russia, like though the Nord Stream 1 pipeline.
Germany and France making similar moves
Germany’s economics minister announced this month that the country may keep its three nuclear power plants running this winter. About one-third of Germany’s energy comes from natural gas running through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline from Russia; a pipeline that may be cut off completely in the face of the Russo-Ukrainian war.
Like the Swiss government, former Chancellor Angela Merkel promised to phase out all nuclear power following the Fukushima tragedy. Germany may shelve that plan.
Meanwhile in France, about 70 percent of its electricity comes from nuclear energy. Although a 2014 government policy sought to reduce France’s reliance on nuclear energy by 50 percent, the government has pushed that goal off to 2035.
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Too little, too late?
The group is imploring supporters of their mission to sign their petition beginning Tuesday. Should they reach 100,000 signatures over the next 18 months, they will be able to get the issue on a voter referendum, under Switzerland’s direct democracy law. Even if the voter referendum is passed in a popular vote, it could take years for the government to implement.
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