Rise and Fall of the Nuclear Dream in Germany

In Germany, nuclear policy was initially quite central to German industrial policy and then to national energy policy and later also to German environmental policy. Nuclear and related energy policy decisions were made and coordinated for the most part at the national level as part of the coalition party politics and its need for reasonable consensus both within the party structure but also regarding accommodations with Germany’s sectoral corporatist interest group structure. Environmental concerns are since the 1970s deeply embedded in German society and politics The Chernobyl nuclear accident galvanized these environmental concerns in a very energy-focused way and finally paved the way to the nuclear phase-out agreement.