A panel of advisers urged Chancellor Angela Merkel on Saturday to shut down all of Germany's 17 nuclear power plants by 2021, dpa quoted sources in Berlin as saying as the group wrapped up its report. Merkel appointed the panel, which includes bishops, academics and businessmen, to redraft energy policy after Germans reacted with shock to the March 11 failure of the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant in Japan. Tens of thousands of Germans demonstrated against nuclear power Saturday as Merkel's final decision loomed. "A decade is enough," said a summary copy of the 17 panelists' draft final report, obtained by the German Press Agency dpa. Insiders said the finding was confirmed as the group ended their meeting. Merkel was set to meet with key supporters on Sunday evening at her Berlin office to settle the issue, which has dominated the political agenda for weeks. The parties in Merkel's ruling centre-right coalition suffered losses at state polls on March 27 and concluded they were unelectable if they did not adapt to the public mood. Merkel says she is seeking a bipartisan policy to shift the issue out of the political arena. Huge spending will be needed on gas-powered plants, wind turbines and a new power grid to replace the nuclear reactors, which supplied 22 per cent of the country's electricity until recently. Previously, Merkel's policy was to allow nuclear power as an "interim" technology until about 2036. Insiders said the panel, which also includes a chief executive and a trade unionist, confirmed its earlier draft summary. The findings are to be presented at a televised community meeting on Monday, panelists said. Klaus Toepfer, a former executive director of the UN Environment Programme who co-chaired the panel, told reporters he was annoyed the media was focusing on just the final closedown date. His co-chairman Matthias Kleiner said: "The real question is, what does Germany's energy future look like?" The panel, termed the ethics commission by Merkel, was tasked with assessing the moral implications of nuclear power. A separate panel, of scientists and engineers, was told to assess the risks, and concluded that all 17 plants, none of which is on a sea coast, were generally safe, provided they were not hit by a large hijacked airliner. Merkel's government is expected to follow the ethics panel's negative view. The leaked draft shows the report proposes tax incentives to rural communities to win greater acceptance for wind turbines and power pylons being erected on their skylines. The anti-nuclear movement said it mustered 160,000 demonstrators in 21 German towns to noisily demand an early closedown date for nuclear. The biggest, in Berlin, attracted 20,000 to 25,000 protesters, according to police and the activists.
