Germany keeps power plants open

BONN, Germany - Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder yesterday abandoned an ambitious timetable for the planned shutdown of German nuclear power plants, appeasing the energy industry but angering his environmentalist coalition partners.

After talks with leading electricity company bosses, Schroeder made clear that the government had dropped its goal of banning shipments of spent nuclear fuel abroad for reprocessing starting Jan. 1.

Such a ban would be the first step toward weaning Germany off nuclear power, which provides about a third of its electricity. But Manfred Timm, a spokesman for the power industry, said ''we absolutely could not live with'' the target date. No new deadline was set.

The delay underlined the difficulties facing one of the center-left government's key projects. It also prompted a clash between Schroeder and the environmentalist Greens, the junior partner in his 3-month-old ruling alliance.

Schroeder accepted the nuclear industry's argument that the January deadline was unrealistic because power plants still lack the storage space necessary if nuclear waste is no longer sent to Britain and France for reprocessing.

''I cannot say when the last plant will stop reprocessing,'' he told a news conference. ''I can only say I hope as soon as possible.''

Timm said operators of Germany's 19 nuclear plants were ready to negotiate an end to reprocessing as well as a complete shutdown, but that each plant would need an individual timetable.

Before yesterday's talks, nuclear operators had demanded that reprocessing continue until at least 2004.

The Greens voiced anger at Schroeder's abrupt scrapping of a common coalition stand on nuclear power reached only two weeks ago. The chancellor has created a ''very problematic situation,'' Greens co-chairwoman Gunda Roestel said.

But Schroeder said that the coalition's pace on the nuclear shutdown, dictated by the Greens, had probably been too hasty.

He also abandoned the government's position that a change in German laws would be an ''act of God'' that would rule out claims for damages if Germany scraps contracts with French and British reprocessing plants, Timm said.

Schroeder said the government would investigate whether the contracts offered other possibilities for ending reprocessing exports without the need for compensation payments.

The government had planned to propose a law to parliament Friday that would have banned exports of material to be reprocessed. But Schroeder delayed the plan last weekend due to concerns about possible damage claims, after previously saying he saw no legal basis for compensation.

British and French compensation claims could total $7.1 billion.

As the talks began at the chancellery in Bonn, about 300 anti-nuclear activists demonstrated nearby. Some scaled a museum wall and unfurled banners calling for an immediate end to nuclear power.

Opponents of a shutdown say about 40,000 jobs are at stake in Germany's nuclear power industry. With unemployment above 10 percent, Schroeder acknowledged the jobs were a factor in the talks.