Germany accelerates nuclear decommissioning

Last week, Germany announced that it intends to close all of its nuclear plants by 2022, in the wake of Japan’s earthquake and tsunami that critically damaged the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex. The country's main nuclear utilities, E.On and DWE expected their pre-1980 facilities to be winding down, but hoped for a longer time to do so. Alternative energy companies with large German businesses, including Vestas Wind Systems (Denmark) and Spanish wind turbine firm Gamesa, rose sharply on the news.