Switzerland

At first Lorenz Hilfiker from Bern in Switzerland describes the opinions of the Swiss governmental parties and the only opposition party “the Green”. He also considers the changed attitudes after Fukushima. Finally we get information about the points of view of the Swiss Churches.

Opinions on Energy and Nuclear Energy in particular

Switzerland
The issue is very current in Switzerland at the moment because an energy supply shortfall is to be expected in the next years as all four nuclear power plants have to be shut down soon. They account for about 40 % of Swiss electricity production. The debate on Nuclear Power has restarted a while ago. In 2003 the Swiss declined the prolongation of the moratorium for construction of new NPP’s. In February 2011, there was a first consultative voting in the Canton Bern about a new NPP designed to replace the old 1971 reactor at Mühleberg (which is, by the way, of the same type as the Fukushima reactor). This voting was considered to be a first test for the expected binding national referendum on new NPP’s in 2013. The supporters narrowly won by 51%.

The situation is certainly going to change after the current catastrophe in Fukushima. Therefore it is to be expected that some of the following positions of the various political players may already have shifted in the last days or may completely change sooner or later. If already available in media, I have tried to include some of the first concise reactions on the Japanese reactor catastrophes.

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