Germany has been a hotbed of anti-nuclear activism for decades. You might remember those bumper stickers from the 70s—“Atomkraft—NEIN Danke.” But the country has also long been committed to fighting climate change. And even some greens have embraced nuclear power as a lower-carbon alternative to fossil fuels.

So when push came to shove, Chancellor Angel Merkel decided last fall to keep Germany’s 17 nuclear plants running for 30 more years, to help meet the country’s CO2 emissions targets.

But then came the multiple meltdowns in Fukushima.

This classic protest bumper sticker, from the 1970s, depicts a fictitious republic independent from Germany - and nuclear energy. (Photo: Gerry Hadden)

“Step by step we will abandon nuclear energy by 2022,” she said. “This path is a big challenge for Germany, but it also means huge opportunities for future generations.”

It was a day Germany’s environmental movement had been fighting for, for decades: nuclear power will be phased out within ten years. And the country’s greens are relishing their victory. Katharina Fegebank, president of the Green Party in Hamburg, said the movement deserves most of the credit for the phase-out.

“Now our policy has become reality,” she said, “a political agenda shared by all other parties and that is fantastic. We should all be very proud of what we achieved over the last 30 years. It is our victory.”

Germany’s anti-nuclear movement has its roots in the 1960s. It began as a mix of anti-Cold War activists, environmentalists and locals opposed to nuclear waste storage sites in their communities.

And it has gained momentum from other nuclear accidents.

On a recent day, long time activist Kerstin Rudek stood outside a quiet train depot hidden among farms and forest in Lower Saxony, in northern Germany. Once a year, waste from Germany’s nuclear plants is brought here for transport to a nearby storage site.

Rudek said 32 years ago a tiny, local protest here against the proposed site suddenly went viral.

Activist Kerstin Rudek stands beneath a giant yellow X erected in woodlands near a nuclear waste storage facility. The X has become the dominant symbol of popular rejection of the storage sites. (Photo: Gerry Hadden)

Harrisburg, being the nuclear accident at Three Mile Island, near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

“So instead there were about 100,000 people reaching Hannover. It was a very big manifestation.”

The waste storage facility, in the village of Gorleben, was eventually built despite popular opposition. But the anti-nuke demonstrations have continued with remarkable strength over the decades since, until Fukushima pushed popular sentiment to a point that the government couldn’t ignore.

But Rudek said that despite the decision to phase out nuclear power, protesters need to keep the pressure on to make sure future German governments don’t back peddle on the 2022 deadline.

“We see the problem that people might not fight for their rights themselves,” she said, “and just leave it to the parliament, and this will not work out. We have to be stronger than before.”

But phasing out nuclear power and dealing with the waste is just one half of Germany’s post-nuclear energy challenge. The other half is finding ways to replace the huge amount of lost power with renewable energy sources.

Chancellor Merkel says she is committed to that. But Christoph von Lieven, of Greenpeace in Hamburg, said the government must put its full backing behind the plan for it to work.

“They’ve supported the nuclear power plants on in Germany in last 20 years with over 200 billion euros,” he said. “This money, invested in renewables, would be more than sufficient.”

Money is just one of many obstacles as Germany gears up to switch from nuclear to renewable energy. And even environmentalists can’t all agree on the way forward.

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Marco Werman: Getting the entire Japanese economy back to full power maybe much more of a challenge following a big reversal there this week on energy policy. The world’s environment editor Peter Thompson joins us now. Peter i understand that japans prime minister has pulled the plug on the countries plans to expand nuclear power.

Peter Thompson: That’s right Marco, ever since the disaster at the Fukushima plant began two months ago today. Prime Minister Naoto Khan has stuck by Japans plan to build fourteen new nuclear reactors over the next twenty years. That would of given nuclear a fifty percent share of the country’s electricity supply. But yesterday Khan had abruptly changed course and declared that his government would scrap the plan and as he put it start from scratch. Khan didn’t provide a lot of details on what would replace that generating capacity. But he did say that the country will pour more of its efforts into what he called the dual pillars of renewable energy and energy conservation.

Werman:  So does that mean Japan is putting the kibosh on nuclear altogether?

Thompson: No it certainly does not signal a complete repudiation of nuclear power. Khan does seem to have left the door open to still building some new plants and his own status is pretty uncertain since he is the fifth prime minister in five years. Also the nuclear industry is extremely powerful in Japan so there’s no guarantee this new policy shift will stick. And any case Japans likely to be dependent on nuclear for a long time to come. Although Khan did admit that the country needs to put a much greater emphasis on the safety of its nuclear plants.

Werman:  And give us a reality check here Peter is it really feasible that renewables and efficiency alone can become a sufficient part of Japans energy mix.

Thompson: Well that remains to be seen of course. The country has lagged behind other big players on renewables so far but it’s ahead of much of the rest of the world when it comes to using energy efficiently. Of course globally Marco renewables are really taking off and a new report this week from the intergovernmental panel on climate change said that renewables could provide almost eighty percent of global energy demand by the middle of the century if governments implement the right policies. So turns out that one of the interesting things to come out of this terrible disaster in Japan is that the country could become a lab for those kinds of energy policies and technologies.

Werman: We will be watching the world’s environment editor Peter Thompson thanks very much.

Thompson:  Thanks Marco.

Werman: Peters also got a new blog post up on our website today on the latest science on natural gas fracking. A new report has found that fracking can contaminate groundwater with high levels of flammable methane. That’s at the world.org/blogs.

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(Photo: BigonL)

Switzerland’s government has decided to suspend the process of building new nuclear plants. A British member of parliament says nuclear power “fails every test.” India’s Prime Minister has ordered an immediate review of the ability of the country’s nuclear reactors to withstand natural disasters.

They’re among the many political voices across the globe responding to the Fukushima crisis in much the same way.

Before Fukushima, nuclear power was experiencing something of a comeback around the world. But in many countries these last two weeks, those nuclear ambitions have turned to concerns.

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon was the latest to chime in on Friday, when ye called for a reassessment of international nuclear safety rules.

Others aren’t waiting for such a review to apply the brakes on nuclear power. In Europe, no country reversed course faster than Germany.

No more business as usual

Last year, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she would extend the life of some of the country’s aging nuclear plants. But after Fukushima, Merkel reversed course and ordered a review of all nuclear facilities and a temporarily closure all German plants built before 1980. At a meeting of European leaders yesterday, Merkel said that nations using nuclear energy can’t continue with business as usual.

For some, this was welcome news. Ingrid Nestle, of the German Green Party, said events in Japan are a turning point in the history of nuclear power.

Until now, Nestle said, the story was always that an accident like Fukushima couldn’t happen in highly industrialized countries like Japan, Germany, the UK and France.

“We now see that this story is not true,” Nestle said.

The European Commission wants to know if is true, and has decided that all nuclear plants in the EU should undergo a “stress test.”

But the Brussels-based nuclear industry trade group FORATOM is worried that Europe’s reaction to Fukushima is being driven by fear and politics rather than facts.

Spokesman Christian Taillebois said FORATOM has no problem with upgrading safety requirements if it’s really necessary. But he said, “if it’s just a political signal to be given to the public on this, then I think we have to be cautious.”

The threat from earthquakes and tsunamis is remote in Europe. But it’s much more immediate elsewhere. In Chile, the scenes from Japan have brought back nightmares from last year’s earthquake, and brought concerns among some Chileans.

A week ago, Chile’s government Chile inked an agreement with the US on nuclear cooperation and training. Chile doesn’t actually have any nuclear plants yet, and the agreement didn’t mention the building of any. Some hope it stays that way.

Samuel Leiva, of Greenpeace in Chile, points out that the country has a major earthquake every 25 years. “So we don’t really want to deal with this.”

The nuclear debate in Asia

Energy hungry China has made big plans to expand nuclear power. But after Fukushima, China not only halted those plans but actually made that decision public, and published the location of its existing and planned nuclear plants.

India has also put its big nuclear ambitions on hold pending a review.

Elsewhere in Asia, though, interest in nuclear power seems unaffected. Richard Tanter, a senior research Associate with The Nautilus Institute for Sustainability and Security in Melbourne, Australia, said that Vietnam and Malaysia are actively looking at nuclear, as is seismically-active Indonesia.

Indonesian nuclear authorities insist that if they build their four planned reactors to higher standards, they’ll avoid problems like those at Fukushima, Tanter said.

But he points out that no matter how much safer new reactors might be, all of these countries still face one major challenge: nuclear waste.

“There’s still this problem of what do we do with the spent fuel,” Tanter said. “We don’t have a permanent repository anywhere on earth.”

But Tanter added there’s one more important factor in the debate. Nuclear power companies still have a huge economic incentive to sell their technology to countries around the world.

Tanter said you can expect French, South Korean and Japanese nuclear companies to continue to try to influence their neighbors when it comes to making choices about nuclear power.

Could jatropha solve India's energy problems? (All pictures copyright D1 Oils plc)

The next gold rush is gearing up: renewable energy is hot. You can find solar panels everywhere these days, from the Mojave Desert to to roofs of Midieval castles.

Nuclear energy may be entering a renaissance. And scientists are looking for nearly any type of plant to power our cars: from sugarcane, to corn, to jatropha.

In this podcast we look at the future of renewable energy in Europe, North Africa, and the USA.