World News for Students of English

18-04-2023 15:00

On Sunday, the three remaining nuclear power stations in Germany were shut down forever as Berlin enacted its plan for fully renewable electricity generation by 2035.

Germany is ending a six-decade-long program that saw one of Europe’s strongest protest movements. The shutdown of the last three power stations was set for last summer; however, it was delayed after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine sent energy prices soaring and spawned fears of shortages around the world.

Germany pledged to quit nuclear power following the 2011 Fukushima disaster in Japan. Once responsible for a third of Germany’s production, it made up just 6% of it last year, compared to 44% from renewable sources. However, members of pro-nuclear energy groups call the move a huge disaster, claiming that Germany will have to return to nuclear energy if the country wants to phase out fossil fuels and become greenhouse gas neutral by 2045.

Difficult words: enact (to make law), spawn (to produce or release), phase out (to gradually stop using something).

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