SoylentNews

Swiss Vote to Phase Out Nuclear Power

posted by martyb on Tuesday May 23 2017, @01:06AM   
from the End-of-an-Era dept.

An Anonymous Coward writes:

https://www.yahoo.com/news/switzerland-votes-phase-nuclear-energy-121710224.html

Swiss voters have backed government plans to replace the power from ageing nuclear reactors with renewable energy.

A total of 58.2 per cent of voters supported the phaseout of nuclear energy in a binding referendum on Sunday. Under the Swiss system of direct democracy, voters have the final say on major policy issues.

The plan will provide billions of pounds in subsidies for renewable energy, ban the construction of nuclear plants and decommission the country’s five existing ones, which produce about a third of the country’s electricity.

[...] The move echoes efforts across Europe to reduce dependence on nuclear energy and has been in the making following Japan’s Fukushima disaster in 2011. Germany has announced it will close all nuclear plants by 2022 and Austria banned it decades ago.

---

Original Submission

• Prediction Prediction (Score: 3, Insightful) by Arik on Tuesday May 23 2017, @01:34AM (5 children)

  by Arik (4543) on Tuesday May 23 2017, @01:34AM (#513891) Journal

  Billions of pounds in subsidies and when all's said and done, they'll wind up having to import electricity from someone that continues to maintain power plants. And they'll pay more for it.

  --
  If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?

  Starting Score:	1		point
  Moderation		+1
  Insightful=1, Total=1
  Extra 'Insightful' Modifier		0
  Karma-Bonus Modifier		+1
  Total Score:		3

• Re:Prediction Re:Prediction (Score: 2) by butthurt on Tuesday May 23 2017, @01:44AM (4 children)

  by butthurt (6141) on Tuesday May 23 2017, @01:44AM (#513901) Journal

  from the article:

  [...] the populist Swiss People’s Party [...] said the energy transition will be too expensive, would trigger greater reliance on imported electricity and could disfigure the landscape with more wind turbines and solar panels.

  ...and yet it passed somehow. Smells fishy to me!

  Parent

  • Re:Prediction Re:Prediction (Score: 4, Funny) by kaszz on Tuesday May 23 2017, @01:51AM (2 children)

    by kaszz (4211) on Tuesday May 23 2017, @01:51AM (#513906) Journal

    Crowd sourcing without qualification at its finest.. :p

    Parent

    • Re:Prediction Re:Prediction (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 23 2017, @06:38AM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 23 2017, @06:38AM (#514024)

      Yes, because the qualification of "get people to vote for you" suddenly qualifies a person to be an authority on anything besides accumulating votes.

      Parent

      • Re:Prediction (Score: 2) by kaszz on Wednesday May 24 2017, @02:36AM

        by kaszz (4211) on Wednesday May 24 2017, @02:36AM (#514635) Journal

        Qualification means understanding what you vote on and the consequences it will have. Voting X because some other dude did so is bad basis for decision making.

        Parent

  • Re:Prediction (Score: 2) by MostCynical on Tuesday May 23 2017, @03:55AM

    by MostCynical (2589) on Tuesday May 23 2017, @03:55AM (#513963) Journal

    so a populist party makes claims which may, or may not, be true, but appeal to, well, populism (in this case, anti-renewable version)
    note, too the language "too expensive", "disfigure the landscape" - as if traditional power generation is 'pretty' and 'cheap'.

    --
    "I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex

    Parent