Germany to stay nuclear in Merkel U-turn

Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, is preparing to perform a major U-turn by scrapping plans to abandon nuclear power. The move would bring Berlin into line with many of its European neighbours, who are investing heavily in new and existing sources of atomic energy, but puts Mrs Merkel on a collision course with the country's powerful green lobby and her coalition partners.

Mrs Merkel's dramatic change of heart surfaced at an energy summit attended by government and industry heads in Berlin last week, when it became clear that her ruling grand coalition's aim of closing Germany's 17 nuclear power plants by the early 2020s were at odds with targets for the reduction of CO2 emissions. A government-commissioned study unveiled at the summit showed that Mrs Merkel's targets were not feasible without nuclear power.

Germany is already surrounded by European neighbours whose commitment to nuclear power is growing. With 59 reactors, France is the EU's leading nuclear energy supplier, and Finland and Britain have launched plans to extend their use of the atom.

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US to increase funding to secure Russian military materials

The US government has almost doubled the amount of money it is investing in programmes to improve security at Russia nuclear weapons complexes. The US have been working at sites of Russia's Federal Atomic Energy Agency to help secure nuclear materials from the cold war.

Collaboration in the past between Russia and the US has resulted in Russian uranium from military programmes being downblended and sent to be used in US nuclear power stations. Recently, around 10% of the electricity in the US was generated from uranium sent from Russia.

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Group set up to study nuclear safety

A high level group has been set up by the European Commission to look at radioactive waste management and nuclear safety. The group will be made up of representatives of European countries with nuclear facilities and those which don't use nuclear power. This way, the Commission say, there wil be confidence in the conclusions of the group. The EC Energy Commissioner, Andris Piebalgs, said the group will reinforce the safety of nuclear installations.

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Posted by professor matt on July 20, 2007 at 06:27 PM SGT #