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German nuclear dispute fueled by Japan mishap

12 March 2011 19:41 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. An explosion at a Japanese nuclear power plant has given new fuel to a long-running dispute over the technologyâ€™s future in Germany, where thousands on Saturday demonstrated against plans to extend the life of the countryâ€™s nuclear power stations, APA reports quoting news.yahoo.com website.

Organizers said tens of thousands formed a human chain between the Neckarwestheim nuclear plant and the southwestern city of Stuttgart, which are 28 miles (45 kilometers) appart_ some waving yellow flags with the slogan "Nuclear power â€” no thanks." Police didnâ€™t immediately give a figure.

The demonstration was planned long before the post-earthquake blast at Japanâ€™s Fukushima Dai-ichi plant, but the fears of possible disaster gave an added focus to opponents of the technology in Germany.

Saturdayâ€™s explosion destroyed a building housing the reactor, but a radiation leak was decreasing despite fears of a meltdown from damage caused by a powerful earthquake and tsunami, officials in Japan said.

Germanyâ€™s government last year decided to extend the life of its 17 nuclear plans for an average 12 extra years. A previous government had said it wanted them all shut by 2021.

While Germany â€” unlike some of its European Union partners â€” has no plans to build any new plants, the extension was divisive.

The mishap in Japan, which comes two weeks before a closely fought state election in the region where Saturdayâ€™s protest was held, prompted new criticism from the opposition.

Events at Fukushima "show that, even in a high-tech country like Japan that is equipped for all eventualities, nuclear power is an uncontrollable, highly dangerous, risky technology," the leadership of the opposition Greens said in a statement.

Matthias Miersch, a lawmaker with the main opposition Social Democrats, urged the government to scrap immediately the decision to extend German nuclear plantsâ€™ lives. The third opposition party, the Left Party, called for a worldwide moratorium on expanding nuclear power capacity.

Nuclear energy has been unpopular in Germany since an explosion at a nuclear reactor at Chernobyl, Ukraine, in 1986, sent a cloud of radiation over much of Europe.

Chancellor Angela Merkel, however, has argued that Germany needs to keep nuclear energy for now as a "bridging technology" until it has developed more renewable power sources.

Her deputy, Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle, on Saturday pushed aside questions about the governmentâ€™s nuclear policy.

With thousands likely dead or missing in Japan, "Germanyâ€™s first answer canâ€™t be that ... a political argument breaks out here because there are state election campaigns going on," he said.

Merkelâ€™s center-right coalition faces a tight battle to keep control of the regional government in Baden-Wuerttemberg in a March 27 election, and two other votes also are looming.