The nuclear power plants in Brokdorf in the northern state of Schleswig-Holstein, Grohnde in Lower Saxony and and Unit C at Gundremmingen in Bavaria in the south are taken off the grid and decommissioned on New Year’s Eve.

The legally required decommissioning process will take many years.

This means that in 2022 only three remaining nuclear power plants – in the states of Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg and Lower Saxony – will still be supplying electricity, until in exactly one year’s time they are also due to cease production, officially ending the nuclear phase-out started under Angela Merkel.

However, two plants that produce fuel and fuel elements for export may continue to operate.

In Grohnde, opponents of nuclear power have announced that they will celebrate the end of the power plant with a vigil and a demonstration.

Merkel’s federal government sealed the nuclear phase-out in 2011 after the nuclear accident in Fukushima, Japan.

Recently, however, more supporters of nuclear energy have been voicing their opinions again, because unlike electricity production from coal, for example, it produces significantly less climate-damaging carbon dioxide.