Schroeder, Nuclear Bosses Reach Agreement on Plants

Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and the bosses of Germany’s nuclear power plants agreed today on a plan to end the country’s use of atomic energy, clinching a deal that had eluded Schroeder’s center-left government for more than a year.

At an early-morning news conference, Schroeder announced that both sides had compromised on how quickly the phaseout would take effect, with the government allowing two extra years of running time. That means Germany’s last nuclear plant would go off line in about 20 years.

Industry leaders said they regretted the early closures. “But we accept the primacy of the political system,” Ulrich Hartmann, chairman of the Veba utility, said after 4 1/2 hours of talks.

Schroeder came into office in late 1998 promising to negotiate an end to nuclear power in Germany--an issue especially dear to the heart of his junior coalition partner, the environmentalist Greens party.

Germany’s 19 nuclear plants provide almost a third of the country’s electricity. But the nation also has a big antinuclear lobby that regularly targets shipments of nuclear fuel or waste with massive, sometimes violent protests.

Schroeder, a Social Democrat, initially said his government would legislate plant closures after a year if a voluntary deal couldn’t be reached. But the negotiations dragged on for 18 months and were marked by bickering between the partners over how quickly the plants should be shut down.

The final deal allows a total life span of 32 years for power plants, Schroeder said. He did not say exactly when the last nuclear energy production will end. The newest German plants came on line in the late 1980s, which means their 32 years should be up in about 2020.

Before today’s deal was reached, Greens party lawmakers had suggested that the first two nuclear plants could be shut down before the end of the current legislative period in 2002. The conservative opposition, however, has threatened to block any deal in the upper house of Parliament, where the states are represented.

Conservatives accuse the government of ignoring potential job losses and costs to states such as Bavaria and Baden-Wuerttemberg--both conservative-led--that are major shareholders in public utilities. They also argue that scrapping nuclear power would create other problems by forcing Germany to use other fuels, keeping the nation from meeting targets for reducing air pollution.