Germany takes most of its Nuclear Plants offline

By JUERGEN BAETZ, Associated Press

Saturday, May 21, 2011

(05-21) 07:11 PDT BERLIN, Germany (AP) --

More than three-quarters of Germany's nuclear power plants were offline Saturday due to maintenance work or shutdowns ordered by the government after Japan's Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster, utility companies said.

Only four of the country's 17 nuclear power plants were online after the energy utility RWE AG took its Emsland plant off the grid Saturday.

Environmentalists accused the utilities of staging simultaneous maintenance shutdowns while threatening blackouts to put pressure on Chancellor Angela Merkel's government, which appears determined in the wake of the Fukushima Dai-ichi catastrophe to phase out nuclear power within ten to 15 years. A decision on that policy is expected in June.

"We are afraid that the utilities could intentionally stage a blackout to influence people in the debate on phasing out nuclear power," said Jochen Stay of anti-nuclear group Ausgestrahlt.



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