More than 10,000 people demonstrated across Germany on Saturday against the continued use of nuclear power, in the wake of Japan's ongoing nuclear emergency. Police counted more than 6,000 demonstrators in the city of Bremen, as well as 3,000 in Essen, where nuclear plant operator RWEis based, and 1,000 people in the southern city of Regensburg.
A further 1,000 protesters gathered at a nuclear waste depository in Gorleben, in the north of the country. The demonstrators demanded not only that reactor security must be checked in lights of events in Japan, where radiation has leaked from a facility damaged after a March 11 earthquake and tsunami, but also called upon the government to re-evaluate the safety of sites selected to store nuclear waste.
Most Germans oppose nuclear power generation, and the issue played a key role in state elections last weekend, which dealt a blow to Chancellor Angela Merkel's centre-right coalition. Following events in Japan, Merkel ordered the suspension of activity at Germany's oldest reactors and extensive tests at all 17 nuclear generators before re-evaluating the future use of the technology in Germany. Many Germany feel these steps do not go far enough, and demand an immediate phaseout of nuclear power.
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