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former Director for Nuclear Facilities Safety of the German Nuclear Regulator, recommended thatespecially the reactors Mühleberg and Beznau “should be shut down immediately”. 685In October 2013 the BKW announced that it would close its Mühleberg reactor in 2019, due to“indefinable and unquantifiable… technical, economic and political uncertainties [that] couldincrease the economic risks of long‐term operation.”686 In January 2015, the federal regulatoraccepted the upgrades proposed by the operator in order to continue operating Mühleberg until2019. 687Until 3/11, the nuclear phase‐out option never gained a sufficient majority, but the “Swiss‐style”referenda have maintained an effective moratorium on any new project over long periods of time.Fukushima had a very significant impact in Switzerland. Only three days after 3/11, theGovernment suspended the procedures around license requests for new‐build. Opinion polls aweek later showed that support for new‐build nuclear power had plunged by 34 points, from55 percent to 21 percent in two months. 688 On 8 June 2011, the Swiss parliament voted in favor ofthe phase‐out of nuclear power in the country at the end of the projected lifetime of the lastoperating reactor in 2034.Since then, a number of initiatives have attempted to modify the schedule, seeking either toaccelerate or to slow down the process. While there seems to be a durable consensus in thecountry that any new‐build initiative is off the table, the Government has initiated a process calledEnergy Strategy 2050 that does not fix any precise shutdown dates and aims to keep the existingreactors operating “as long as they are safe”. The criteria for reactor closure remain uncertain.The Strategy includes measures to reduce energy consumption and to boost renewable energies.It is now being discussed by Parliament, as well as the “Nuclear Phase‐out Initiative”. Variousenvironmental, clean energy and anti‐nuclear groups have launched a campaign to limit thelifetime of the nuclear plants to 40 years and thus shut down the last reactor by 2029. A nationalpetition drive was launched in late May 2013. 689 This process could continue into 2016.On the development of renewables, Switzerland has a long way to go. An analysis by the SwissEnergy Foundation that compares the per‐capita generation of wind and solar power foundSwitzerland behind 25 of the 28 EU countries. 690685 Dieter Majer, “Risiko Altreaktoren Schweiz”, February 2014, commissioned by Schweizerische Energie‐Stiftung (SES), February 2014, see http://www.energiestiftung.ch/energiethemen/atomenergie/risiken/risikoaltreaktoren/,accessed 24 July 2014.686 NIW, “Switzerland—News Briefs”, 1 November 2013.687 Eidgenössische Nuklearsicherheitsinspektorat (ENSI), “Forderungen des ENSI für den Weiterbetrieb desKernkraftwerks Mühleberg bis zur endgültigen Ausserbetriebnahme im Jahr 2019”, 23 January 2015.688 AREVA, “Impact of Fukushima event on nuclear power sector – Preliminary assessment”, 25 March 2011.689 SES, “40 Jahre sind genug – Jetzt Petition unterzeichnen”, 22 May 2013, seehttp://www.energiestiftung.ch/aktuell/archive/2013/05/22/40‐jahre‐sind‐genug‐jetzt‐petitionunterzeichnen.html,accessed 5 June 2013.690 SES, “Neue erneuerbare Energien: Schweiz hinkt der EU hinterher”, 19 May 2015, seehttp://www.energiestiftung.ch/aktuell/archive/2015/05/19/erneuerbare‐energien‐schweiz‐kann‐nichtmit‐eu‐mithalten.html,accessed 30 May 2015.Mycle Schneider, Antony Froggatt et al. World Nuclear Industry Status Report 2015 158