Germany has begun shutting down its three remaining nuclear power plants as part of a long-planned transition towards renewable energy. The shutdown of the Emsland, Neckarwestheim II and Isar II reactors, which was agreed upon more than a decade ago, has proved divisive. Other industrialised countries – such as the UK, US, Japan, China and France – are counting on nuclear energy to replace fossil fuels. Germany's decision to stop using both nuclear and fossil fuels has been met with some scepticism, as well as unsuccessful last-minute calls to halt the shutdown. Decades of anti-nuclear protests in Germany, stoked by…