Merkel for phasing out nuclear energy

BERLIN, Jan. 5 (UPI) -- Chancellor Angela Merkel has reaffirmed her government's commitment to phase out nuclear energy, despite contrary voices from inside her conservative party.

Several of Merkel's ministers had demanded from the center-left coalition partner, the Social Democrats, to step back from their demand to gradually shut down Germany's power plants in light of the row between Russia and Ukraine over natural gas prices.

Merkel's spokesman, Thomas Steg, said the chancellor would stand by her initial pledge.

"The coalition agreement is perfectly clear about this point," Steg said in Berlin.

According to the agreement, all 17 nuclear plants still active in Germany will be shut down by 2021. The previous German coalition government of Social Democrats and Greens had struck a deal with the German energy industry in 1999 to gradually phase-out the production of nuclear energy.

German conservatives have since been trying to scrap the agreement or at least extend the life of the country's reactors.

Economy Minister Michael Glos, of the Bavaria-only Christian Social Union, earlier this week had said Germany should keep nuclear energy for the sake of supply security.

"Atomic energy is an alternative," Glos said. "We have to think about letting them run to not become completely dependent."

Germany is Moscow's biggest natural gas customer -- it gets 36 percent of its gas from Russian state-controlled energy giant Gazprom.