Over and out: Germany switches off its last nuclear plants
Germany has switched off its three remaining nuclear power plants as part of a long-planned transition toward renewable energy BERLIN -- BERLIN (AP) — “Nuclear power, no thanks!” What was once a slogan found on the bumper of many a German car became a reality Saturday, as the country shut down its three remaining nuclear power plants in line with a long-planned transition toward renewable energy. The shutdown of Emsland, Neckarwestheim II and Isar II shortly before midnight was cheered earlier in the day by anti-nuclear campaigners outside the three reactors and at rallies in Berlin and Munich. Inside the plants, staff held more somber ceremonies to mark the occasion. Decades of anti-nu clear protests in Germany, stoked by disasters at Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and Fukushima, had put pressure on successive governments to end the use of a Technology that critics argue is unsafe and unsustainable. But with other industrialized countries, such as the United States, Japan, China, Fran...