FRANKFURT: Stocks in the two biggest German power companies EON and RWE plummeted in opening trading on Monday as fears about nuclear power grew owing to problems with reactors in Japan.

Shares in EON were off by 3.25 percent at 22.33 euros, and number two RWE showed a loss of 3.33 percent to 46.33 euros.

The DAX index of leading German stocks was off by 1.43 percent overall.

Germany has been debating whether to pursue use of nuclear power and the crisis at tsunami-hit generating stations in Japan will probably make it harder for power companies to prevail in the public discussion.