BERLIN (Reuters – Germany is closing three of its six last nuclear power plants on Friday. This will be a further step in its move to turn its attention towards renewable energy and complete its nuclear power withdrawal.

After the Fukushima disaster in Japan, which resulted in the destruction of the Fukushima coastal reactor by an earthquake and tsunami in 2011, Japan’s government decided that it would accelerate the process for its withdrawal from nuclear power. This was the worst nuclear catastrophe since Chernobyl in 25 years.

On Friday, utilities E.ON, RWE will shut down the Brokdorf, Grohnde, and Gundremmingen C reactors that have been in service for three and a half decades.

By the end 2022, all three remaining nuclear power stations – Isar 2, Emsland II and Neckarwestheim II- will have been shut down.

Europe’s largest economy is facing rising energy prices and ambitious climate targets, and the need to phase out an energy source that has been deemed cheap and clean by certain people.

Kerstin Andreae (head of the Energy Industry Association BDEW) stated that the nuclear phase out is complete for Germany’s energy sector.

BDEW preliminary data showed that the six nuclear power stations contributed around 12% to Germany’s electricity production by 2021. Renewable energy accounted for almost 41% of the total, while coal generated just 28% and natural gas 15%.

Germany plans to increase wind and solar power infrastructure in order to meet renewable energy’s 80% power demand by 2030.

The coalition agreement included a nuclear power withdrawal. This was supported by the new government which intends to intensify climate protection.

Robert Habeck (Economy and Climate Protection Minister) stated Wednesday that he doesn’t see any decline in the antinuclear consensus in Germany.

The move was welcomed by environmental groups, but they warned that it did not mean the end of Germany’s nuclear age in 2022.

Arne Fellermann (manager at BUND Environmental Group) said that he had to confirm that there would still be uranium enrichment facilities in Germany.

Fellermann said that there is also a Garching research reactor, which still uses weapons-grade Uranium.

Tobias Buehler, Gundremmingen’s mayor, said that there would not be any job loss after the shut down.

Buehler explained that “and this period of dismantling wird certainly take another one- or two decades.”

E.ON estimates that the total costs of dismantling a plant will cost 1.1 billion Euros ($1.25 Billion). E.ON provided 9.4 billion euro for the nuclear postoperative phase in 2020. This includes the dismantling of the facility and packaging it up to clean up radioactive waste.

It is anticipated that the dismantling will be complete by 2040.

Japan’s government laid out Tuesday a plan to release contaminated water from its Fukushima nuclear reactor into the ocean. This angered South Korea and China.

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