Germany: is the reactor shutdown a terrible and irreversible mistake?

 A quite interesting insight in the last day of Grohnde Nuclear Power Plant by scientist Anna Veronika Wendland and her criticism of german climate lobby in Salonkolumnisten:

On December 31st, three German nuclear power plants will be forced to shut down, although it is already recognized that the nuclear phase-out was a mistake. Why was it still not possible to save the systems? An insight into what is happening on site - and a search for the causes and the responsible actors.

The Grohnde nuclear power plant goes offline on New Year's Eve. I researched in this nuclear power plant for six years as a long-term observer and wrote parts of my habilitation thesis. And also a number of pieces for the salon columnists. Now I am accompanying the last week in power operation and the transition to post-operation and dismantling.

The facility will be shut down as if one of the more than thirty overhauls that the team had behind them. From 6 p.m. they gradually retract the control rods and go down at 10 megawatts per minute. At 25 percent reactor output, the live steam diversion station opens, and the excess steam that the turbine no longer needs is then fed directly into the condenser. Shortly before midnight we are so low that the reverse power protection triggers the turbine shutdown. The quick-closing valves are closed, the steam flow stops, the generator switch opens and disconnects the system from the mains. From this point in time, our 70 megawatts of own consumption will no longer be produced by us, and Grohnde has met the deadline stipulated in the Atomic Energy Act: shutdown “by December 31 at the latest. 2021 "

Germany: consumers hit by high gas and electricity prices; myth of cheap renewables

 As three nuclear power plants have been shut down on new year's eve consumers face skyrocketing prices for gas and elecricity. Consumers pay the price of the energy change in Germany, writes WELT:

Many consumers eager to shop are impatiently waiting for the bargain day called “Black Friday” in the coming week. According to an old tradition, on the last weekend in November you can buy new electricity guzzlers for the household particularly cheaply. But already this week, a completely different “Black Friday” on the energy market may not leave much of the shopping appetite of many shoppers.

Because energy suppliers who want to change their electricity and gas prices on January 1st must, according to the law, announce this six weeks in advance, that is: on the Friday of the week that ends. The announced price increases are likely to trigger a real energy price shock for many.