FRANKFURT: German utilities face a renewed debate on whether to extend nuclear power station lifecycles, following Japan's scramble to avert a meltdown at a stricken plant.
A massive earthquake and tsunami resulted in explosions at a Japanese nuclear plant, highlighting risks of the technology in extreme circumstances.
E.ON, which gets 41 percent of its 19,000 megawatt German power producing capacity from nuclear, said there was no immediate reason to renege on an extension deal the industry brokered with Chancellor Merkel's ruling coalition.
"There is no reason for such an approach. Our plants are being operated to the highest safety standards," said a spokesman for the group.
Merkel has called in prime ministers of states that house nuclear plants for talks on Tuesday amid calls to reverse the deal agreed last September to extend the plant lifecycles. Anti-nuclear caucus Deutsche Umwelthilfe (DUH) said in a statement: "DUH demands that the government immediately reverse the nuclear extension decision and phases out the 7 oldest reactors." "This technology cannot be controlled."
RWE chief executive Juergen Grossmann, where nuclear makes up 25.5 percent of its 25,000 MW of generating capacity in Germany, said the Japanese problems did not result from the earthquake but the ensuing tsunami.
"This could not occur in Germany," he said in an interview with mass circulation tabloid Bild-Zeitung.
Shares in E.ON and RWE were down 3.2 and 3.1 percent down at 1024 GMT on investor concern that the nuclear power sector could suffer in favour of alternatives such as gas and renewables. Both these companies also have gas and renewables.
Grossmann also said that Germany should not carry out individual strategies but align nuclear policy with that of the wider European Union.
France relies on nuclear for more than 80 percent of its electricity compared to Germany's smaller share of around 25 percent.
Hans-Peter Villis, chief executive of south-western firm EnBW, told German paper FAS on Sunday that the explosion in Japan needed to be studied before an "informed debate" on nuclear energy could be continued.
The state of Baden Wuerttemberg, where EnBW operates, faces local elections in a few weeks time, where voters are expected to pressure the government to shut the 34-year old Neckarwestheim 1 reactor.
Vattenfall Europe, a northern German operator whose two plants have been idle since security issues in 2007, said it would not comment on the political debate.
A spokeswoman said that the Kruemmel reactor could withstand earthquakes of 6 on the Richter scale and adjacent Brunsbuettel was being fitted to reach that standard.
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