German chancellor Angela Merkel's coalition resolved their differences over the timing of an exit from nuclear power, setting a final date of 2022 for the country's remaining reactors to shut down.
A tax on spent fuel rods will remain even as the shutdown proceeds, German environment minister Norbert Roettgen told reporters following late-night coalition talks in Berlin.
Dr Merkel in March said she sought to accelerate the shutdown of Germany's atomic power plants following Japan's Fukushima disaster, the worst nuclear crisis since 1986.
The decision reversed a 2010 plan to extend the operation of the facilities by an average of 12 years. "The seven oldest reactors that have been placed under a moratorium and the Kruemmel nuclear power plant won't go back online," Mr Roettgen said early today after the meeting.
"A second group of six nuclear power plants will go offline at the end of 2021 at the latest and the three most modern power plants will go offline 2022 at the latest."
Coalition divisions over the timing of a phase-out deepened after the anti-nuclear Green Party for the first time finished ahead of Dr Merkel's Christian Democrats in a state election on May 22nd.
Dr Merkel last week said she'd await results of an independent feasibility study on a quicker phase-out, to be published later today, before spelling out a new date.
Bloomberg