Japan mishap sharpens German nuke dispute

Thousands of people have demonstrated against plans to extend the life of Germany's nuclear power stations, as an explosion at a Japanese nuclear power plant sharpened a long-running dispute over the technology's future in this country.

Chancellor Angela Merkel said that Germany would examine whether it needs to draw lessons from Japan for its own plants and that officials would be asked to check safety at German nuclear power stations.

However, she stressed that the country's standards are high.

At yesterday's protest in southwestern Germany, demonstrators formed a human chain between the Neckarwestheim nuclear plant and the city of Stuttgart, which are 45 kilometres apart.

Some waved yellow flags with the slogan "Nuclear power no thanks."

Police said several tens of thousands attended; organisers put the number at 60,000.

The demonstration was planned long before the post-earthquake blast at Japan's Fukushima Dai-ichi plant, but the fears of possible disaster gave an added focus to opponents of the technology in Germany.

Germany's government last year moved to extend the life of its 17 nuclear plans for an average 12 extra years.

A decade ago, a previous government decided to shut them by 2021.

While Germany unlike some of its European Union partners has no plans to build any new plants, the extension was divisive.

The mishap in Japan came two weeks before a closely fought state election in the region where yesterday's protest was held.

It prompted new opposition criticism.

Events at Fukushima "show that, even in a high-tech country like Japan that is equipped for all eventualities, nuclear power is an uncontrollable, highly dangerous, risky technology," the leadership of the opposition Greens said in a statement.

Matthias Miersch, a lawmaker with the main opposition Social Democrats, urged the government to scrap immediately the decision to extend German nuclear plants' lives.