Germany announced Tuesday the temporary shutdown of its seven oldest nuclear reactors while it conducts a safety probe in light of Japan's atomic emergency. "We are launching a safety review of all nuclear reactors... with all reactors in operation since before the end of 1980 set to be idled for the period of the (three-month) moratorium," Chancellor Angela Merkel said.
This covers seven of the 17 reactors in Germany, which decided a decade ago to be nuclear-free by 2020, a target postponed until the mid-2030s by Merkel's government late last year - despite strong public opposition. A crisis at Japan's Fukushima No 1 nuclear plant, 250 kilometres (155 miles) north-east of Tokyo, the world's biggest urban area, has worsened daily since a massive earthquake and tsunami on Friday knocked out cooling systems.
Four of the facility's reactors are now in trouble, while temperatures are reportedly rising in the other two. Dangerous levels of radiation have been released, the Japanese government has said. "After this moratorium, which will run until June 15... we will know how to proceed," Merkel said following crisis talks in Berlin with premiers of German states where there are nuclear plants.
She said Berlin would also use the period to discuss what to do with radioactive waste - no permanent storage site exists - boosting renewable energies, and international safety standards for nuclear power. "Safety standards in Germany are one thing, they are important, but safety standards in Europe, being able to compare them, and international safety standards are also important," Merkel said.
Environment Minister Norbert Roettgen said that review would include analysing how safe the reactors would be in the event of an earthquake or a plane crash. Germany's older plants include one in Bavaria, two near Frankfurt and two in the south-western state of Baden-Wuerttemberg - where a key state election takes place on March 27, with nuclear power set to be a major issue.
Baden-Wuerttemberg's under-pressure premier Stephan Mappus, who was a key proponent of the nuclear extension, said that the Neckarwestheim 1 reactor in his state would be switched off "for good". But Sigmar Gabriel, former environment minister and head of the opposition Social Democrats (SPD), co-authors with the Greens of the original 2020 exit, called for all seven old reactors to be shut down permanently.
After the moratorium, Merkel "is just going to come back and say that everything is okay and that German nuclear plants are safe," Gabriel said, accusing Merkel of "election trickery". "The era of nuclear energy is finished," he said. A survey by public broadcaster ARD published on Tuesday had 53 percent of respondents saying all reactors - which produce a quarter of Germany's electricity - should be taken out of service as soon as possible.
Seventy percent thought that an accident similar to that in Japan could happen in Germany, and 80 percent want Merkel to reverse the government's extension of operating times, the poll of 909 voters showed. Germans have long been uneasy about the safety of nuclear power, with shipments of nuclear waste regularly attracting angry protests and Merkel's decision sparking large-scale demonstrations last year.
On Monday large numbers of people worried about nuclear safety - more than 100,000 according to organisers - took to the streets nation-wide. On Saturday tens of thousands of people formed a 45-kilometre human chain between a nuclear plant and the Baden-Wuerttemberg state capital Stuttgart.