"Atomic power? No thanks!" auf DeutschThe New York Times has reported that German Chancellor Angela Merkel has agreed to permanently shut down all the country's atomic reactors by 2022 at the latest. Before the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe, she had campaigned to undo an earlier Social Democratic/Green "Nuclear Consensus" that would have done just that, and to extend operating licenses at each of Germany's 17 reactors by an average of 12 years. But since the Fukushima atomic disaster, which the Chancellor has described as a "catastrophe of apocalyptic dimensions," Merkel's conservative coalition has suffered some stunning defeats at the polls. In Baden-Württemberg, the state in which Stuttgart is the capital city, the Conservative Party had ruled for 60 years; but at the end of March, the Green Party won a majority, a direct popular response to the Fukushima radioactive crisis, but also to decades of tireless anti-nuclear organizing across Germany. If the largest economy in Europe (and the fourth largest economy in the world) can do it, so can the U.S.! Especially considering that Germany had been getting 23-25% of its electricity from atomic reactors, while the U.S. currently gets about 20%. To make up for the phased out nuclear electricity, as well as to continue to meet its Kyoto climate change commitments, Germany plans major expansions of energy efficiency, as well as renewable sources, such as wind and solar -- in which it already is a world leader.