Merkel looks to future ‘without nuclear power’

Germany must make a swift transition from nuclear energy to renewable sources, Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Friday.

She met with the heads of Germany’s 16 state governments to debate her energy blueprint for the future.

“We are making a very ambitious attempt and there is a lot of political will to at least create a framework in which not only the exit is made clear but also in which it is made clear how an independent German energy supply can be achieved without nuclear power,” said Merkel.

Her comments mark a policy U-turn amid an emerging national consensus that Germany’s 17 atomic plants should be quickly shut following Japan’s nuclear disaster.

No date has been set for their shutdown, although the opposition Social Democrats want all of them closed by 2022.

Merkel’s plan will offer cheap credit to build wind farms but will also require new coal and gas plants to be constructed.

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