Security, justice and the energy crossroads: Assessing the implications of the nuclear phase-out in Germany

The nuclear melt-down in Fukushima resulted in diverging energy policy decisions across the world where Germany decided to opt out of nuclear electricity production. Yet, the government’s decision-making framework for energy policy decisions does not accurately reflect important drivers for the strategy change. This paper presents the Energy Crossroads framework as a more comprehensive tool to analyse the drivers and impacts of the nuclear phase-out. 20 expert interviews were performed across business participants as well as policy makers in the national and international energy context. Results show that Germany has adopted an environmental justice, rather than energy security, stance in their nuclear phase out policy, with significant long-term consequences. •We develop the Energy Crossroads framework as a means to analyse the Energiewende.•The strategy's short and medium term concerns focus on the security of supply.•Long term goals are driven by aspects of environmental justice.•Targeted development of national FiTs is needed alongside a functioning carbon market.