For 35 years, the Emsland nuclear power plant in northwestern Germany has reliably provided millions of homes with electricity and many with well-paid jobs in what was once an agricultural backwater.
Now, it and the country’s two other remaining nuclear plants are being shut down. Germany long ago decided to phase out both fossil fuels and nuclear power over concerns that neither is a sustainable source of energy.
The final countdown Saturday—delayed for several months over feared energy shortages because of the Ukraine war—is seen with relief by Germans who have campaigned against nuclear power.
