European energy commissioner Guenther Oettinger said on Monday that safety at older German nuclear power stations must be checked rigorously, and he refused to rule out closures if necessary.
European energy commissioner Guenther Oettinger said on Monday that safety at older German nuclear power stations must be checked rigorously, and he refused to rule out closures if necessary.
He told Deutschlandfunk radio that the crisis at a Japanese nuclear plant had changed the world and put into question what had been regarded as safe and manageable.
Oettinger, Germany's member of the European Commission, made the comments as chancellor Angela Merkel faces a backlash due to Japan's nuclear crisis against Berlin's decision to extend the life of the nation's satomic plants.
Oettinger said safety questions were primarily the responsibility of the 14 European Union states which used atomic energy, and added that safety at Germany's older plants was constantly being upgraded.
But asked if the older plants could be shut down following the Japanese nuclear crisis, he said: "If we take it seriously and say the incident has changed the world - and much that we as an industrial society have regarded as safe and manageable is now in question - then we can't exclude anything."
Oettinger is a member of Merkel's Christian Democrats and a former premier of the southwestern state of Baden-Wuerttemberg, where the party risks losing power in elections in two weeks, due partly to rising support for the Greens.
Merkel called a crisis meeting with senior ministers on Saturday to discuss consequences of the crisis at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi plant after the massive earthquake and tsunami.
As thousands protested in Baden-Wuerttemberg against her nuclear policy, Merkel said Germany's nuclear plants are safe but the government was watching the Japanese crisis to see if lessons could be learned.
The government's decision last year to keep Germany's 17 nuclear plants running for about 12 years beyond their original shutdown date stirred large-scale protests and hit the ruling coalition's popularity.
On Saturday, anti-nuclear protesters formed a 45-km (27 mile) human chain from the city of Stuttgart to an older nuclear power plant that will be kept running longer because of the new policy. Between 50,000 and 60,000 demonstrators took part, according to police and organisers.
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