Germany Shuts Down Reactors as Europe Plans Safety Test

In light of recent events involving the earthquake and tsunami that took place in Japan last week, countries are taking note and acting accordingly. Germany announced recently that they are shutting down 7 of the plants that went online before 1980, while the European Union stated that they will be testing all of their 147 power plants. Chancellor Markel of Germany is taking heat for this decision, being accused of acting on fear and not rationality. The European Union will be testing the plants for anything from a flood or tsunami to a terrorist attack. With what happened in Japan, countries are taking note so they do not make the same mistake. It comes at a bad time, because countries, like the US, were planning to expand their nuclear energy, but now have to act cautiously on this. President Sarkozy is holding a summit for the Group of 20 so that European nations can discuss this issue of nuclear safety. It will be difficult to make decisions involving nuclear energy safety, cause most nations use this as their primary source of energy. France gets about 70% of their electricity from nuclear energy. But regardless, no other nation can afford to have the same issue that happened to Japan happen to them. Other nations, including the US, has been given the opportunity to learn from the mistakes, or misfortunes, of Japan. It would be ridiculous to take this chance and run with it.