The leaders of Germany's 16 states told Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin Friday that they wanted a gradual shutdown from nuclear power, rather than the government's planned two-stage shutdown in 2021 and 2022.

They emphasized, however, that the final shutdown must be irreversible. Reiner Haseloff, the state premier of Saxony-Anhalt, said the states stood together on this matter.

"We have [unanimously] agreed...on the key points of action," he said following the meeting.

Merkel has given in to the states' demands, saying the multiphase shutdown would now be scheduled for 2015, 2017, 2019, 2021 and 2022. The country's seven oldest nuclear reactors, already shut in the wake of the Fukushima disaster, will remain offline. A final decision is expected Monday.

The chancellor stressed that the nuclear shutdown would not lead to the de-industrialization of Germany.

"We want security, affordability and environmental acceptability and I believe we can have all three, as well as creating jobs," she said.

Gradual shutdown

The states also rejected a condition of the current plan, under which one of the eight nuclear plants currently under moratorium is scheduled to remain on standby until 2013. Instead, said Haseloff, gas and coal-fired power plants should make up the reserve.

States led by the opposition Green party and the Social Democrats (SPD) have also demanded that the planned 35 percent increase in electricity from renewable energy sources be pushed to 40 percent.

Operators, however, are not pleased about the planned shutdown. Oystein Loseth, the chief executive of Vattenfall, the company that owns the majority stakes in two plants already offline, told a French newspaper that the German shutdown could mean massive losses.

"The German shutdown could mean losses worth hundreds of millions of euros," Loseth told French newspaper Les Echos.

Author: Sarah Harman (dpa, dapd, AFP)
Editor: Martin Kuebler