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Germans stage anti-nuclear protests

19 September 2010 00:49 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Tens of thousands of anti-nuclear activists have protested the German government’s plans to extend the life of the country’s nuclear power plants, APA reports quoting presstv.ir website.

Protesters demonstrated in Berlin on Saturday outside Chancellor Angela Merkel’s offices against a decision to extend the life of German nuclear power plants for another decade, Reuters reported.

According to AFP, estimates of the numbers of protesters ranged from 37,000 to 100,000. The demonstrators were supported by environmental groups and left-leaning opposition parties.

Demonstrators waved banners, and yellow and green balloons with slogans that read "shut down the government now."

The protests were in response to a center-right coalition agreement last weekend to lift the 2022 deadline for the phasing out of nuclear energy use, originally set by the previous Social Democrat government.

The new plan would extend the life of Germany’s 17 nuclear reactors for an average of 12 years beyond the previously scheduled shutdown.

Jochen Stay, spokesman for the association Ausgestrahlt (Irradiate), said the government’s agreement with the energy companies was "scandalous" and hoped the protests would only be the "beginning of what will happen this autumn.â€

About one thousand people also gathered in the western German city of Perl, which borders France and Luxembourg, to demand the closure of the nuclear power plant in the French town of Cattenom.