No politics in nuclear decision, says Germany's Merkel

Mar 17, 2011, 13:52 GMT

Berlin - Germany's nuclear policy continued to dominate the political stage Thursday, as the government argued that its plans put security first, even as opposition members accused it of dragging its feet on shuttering the country's nuclear plants.

Chancellor Angela Merkel took to the floor of the German parliament, or Bundestag, to update the legislature on the situation in disaster-stricken Japan. But the session quickly turned into a series of broadsides about which side was more serious about denuclearizing the country.

Merkel also acted pre-emptively to swat accusations that this week's move to delay a previous decision to extend the lifetime of Germany's nuclear power plants had been politically motivated.

She said the proposal, which centres on a three-month review of all nuclear power plants, is the only rational reaction in light of current events.

'If a highly developed country like Japan can see the impossible become possible, then that changes the situation,' she said.

But opposition members point out that the timeframe would push any nuclear debate until after a series of critical state-level elections where the nuclear issue could hurt the chances of Merkel's Christian Democrats.

Merkel said she was disappointed that anyone would level such an accusation, saying the review was the only logical response to the ongoing nuclear crisis in Japan.

'This is not a deal. This is not an agreement. This is a usage of the atomic laws under a new environment,' she said in her speech. 'We shouldn't be accused of legalistic tricks when none can be substantiated.'

But the three-month timeframe was called into doubt by multiple legislators.

'It is not serious to suggest a three-month moratorium,' said Juergen Trittin, a former environment minister and leader of the Green Party in parliament. 'You can't have a serious security check in three months. You need one year to one and a half years.'

He noted that German society, in general, backs an end to the use of nuclear power. He said the ongoing events in Japan, where a meltdown threatens at a nuclear power plant damaged by last week's earthquake and tsunami, only highlights the dangers.

'The plants that I'm talking about, you call them the safest in the world,' he said. 'What do you think that the Swiss or the Swedish governments say about their reactors? And what do you think the Japanese prime minister would have said about his nuclear power plants last week?'

The proposal for the three-month moratorium was eventually endorsed in the Bundestag on a 331-308 vote.

Merkel also backed an eventual withdrawal from nuclear power in her statement, arguing that nuclear power is nothing more than a 'bridge technology' to renewable energy.

But opposition members say the government should go further and faster and that Merkel was not being completely honest about her past support for keeping nuclear plants open.

'No more lies,' said Sigmar Gabriel, head of the opposition Social Democrats. A former environment minister in a coalition government with Merkel, he said she had reacted coolly to his attempts to shutter nuclear power plants at an accelerated rate.

'You ordered me in writing to extend the running times of these power plants,' he said during his floor statement.

However, all sides agreed that any move from nuclear energy would be complex. Merkel noted giving up nuclear sources of power could mean more carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere.

And Trittin, risking the ire of his own party, noted that moving to renewable energy would mean the laying of more power transmission lines, an unpopular idea among most Greens.

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