Germany extends nuclear energy running times (Roundup)

Sep 28, 2010, 16:34 GMT

Berlin - Chancellor Angela Merkel's cabinet ignored mounting public discontent and adopted Tuesday a plan to extend the legal running times of Germany's 17 nuclear power plants while investing in renewable power.

The extension, delaying the closure of the last plant 12 years to 2036, is a centrepiece of Merkel's 'autumn of resolute decisions.'

She is under pressure to end a year of drift in her government and to implement her election policies. Her Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its coalition partner both promised before last year's general election to restore nuclear power.

Merkel contends nuclear power will tide Germany over until it can cut waste, produce more electricity from the wind and the sun and invent new forms of renewable energy.

Economics Minister Rainer Bruederle said longer running times were 'an indispensable bridge' to the future.

Anti-nuclear groups have pledged to fight the extension in the courts and to hold huge protest demonstrations.

Five ministers jointly met the media to lay out the details in Berlin after the cabinet meeting. Research on new power technology will be stepped up and Germany must rebuild its power grid to connect wind farms at sea or in the mountains to its big cities.

A new tax on uranium fuel rods will apply from 2011 until 2016.

Two months ago, the government predicted the tax would yield 2.3 billion euros (3 billion dollars) annually to help balance the federal deficit. But later, in talks with utility firms, Berlin slashed the proposed rate of fuel-rod tax.

Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, speaking to the media just before he went to hospital for treatment, said the tax would still meet the stated revenue target, despite the rate cut.

He explained the discrepancy as a bluff.

'We acted like careful shopkeepers and played safe,' he said. 'Actually, we were originally hoping for 3 billion euros.'

Nuclear plants generate about a quarter of Germany's electricity. Legislation forcing each reactor to close after delivering a set quota of power will be amended, allowing the plants between 8 and 14 extra years.

'They'll run an average of 12 years longer,' said Bruederle.

Government officials said the longest-lived plant would not be decommissioned till 2036 under the rescheduling. The old legislation, passed by a government of Social Democrats and Greens in 2002, would have forced the nuclear industry to close by about 2022.

The Merkel government is to use its majority in the lower chamber or Bundestag to pass its nuclear legislation, and will argue that the bill does not need approval in the upper house, where opponents hold sway. That tactic is expected to face a court challenge.

Construction Minister Peter Ramsauer said Germany would also try to rid itself of buildings which leak expensive heat in winter, but backed away from a plan that would have made building upgrades mandatory. Instead, cash incentive will be offered.

'We have 18 million buildings in Germany of which two-thirds have insulation levels that are not state of the art,' he said. The government will offer 500 million euros annually to house owners to replace old buildings which cannot be economically upgraded.

Merkel's pro-nuclear course has angered municipal electricity companies, which own fossil-fuel power plants, and wind-turbine operators. Both groups had previously been counting on strong returns from their generating plants as the nuclear industry died out.

'Four giant electricity groups have been given a free gift worth billions,' said Dietmar Schuetz, president of the German Renewable Energy Federation.

Government officials said the fuel-rod tax and another levy mean that the power companies will be surrendering more than half of the extra profits they will gain by running the existing nuclear plants for 12 extra years.

Schaeuble said the pact with the four companies, Eon, RWE, EnBW and Vattenfall to claw back their profits had been initialled and would become final when the legislation was passed.

Greenpeace, the environmentalist group, picketed many of the nuclear plants as the announcement was made and accused the government of acting 'against the will of the people.'

But German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle, who heads the minor partner in the coalition, the Free Democratic Party (FDP), said the government would be ignoring the protests.

He said some government decisions by their very nature faced resistance.