Germany wants nuclear exit by 2022 at latest

Germany will shut all its nuclear reactors by 2022 and plans to cut power use by 10 percent by 2020, Chancellor Angela Merkel's coalition agreed on Monday in a policy u-turn drawn up in a rush after the Fukushima disaster.
The decision, which may be even more ambitious than the nuclear exit planned when the Social Democrats and Greens were in power in 2000, as it takes eight of 17 nuclear plants offline now and six by 2021, could still face opposition from utilities.
Only nine months ago Merkel announced an extension of the lifespan of unpopular nuclear plants by an average 12 years. In March, after Japan's earthquake and tsunami, she reversed that and put Germany's entire energy strategy under urgent review.
"Our energy system has to be fundamentally changed and can be fundamentally changed. We want the electricity of the future to be safer and, at the same time, reliable and economical," Merkel told reporters on Monday.

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