"For the first time in many years, a German government is setting out a energy plan for the long term," Economy Minister Rainer Bruederle told reporters in Berlin.

"It sets out a good and detailed roadmap with the era of renewable energy as the destination."

In a country with strong public misgivings about the safety of nuclear power, the German government in 2000 under ex-chancellor Gerhard Schroeder to switch off the last of its 17 reactors by around 2020.

But Merkel's centre-right administration wants to extend the lifetime of the reactors by up to 14 years in order, meaning that Germany will still have nuclear power as part of its energy mix until around 2035.

Merkel says this will give Germany time to build up its wind and solar power capacity. She also intends also to channel some of billions of euros (dollars) that utility firms will earn from the extension into the renewables sector.

But her plans, which she hopes to pass into law by the end of the year, have revitalised the German anti-nuclear movement, which gained momentum in the aftermath of the Chernobyl disaster in Ukraine in 1986.

Tens of thousands of people demonstrated in Berlin against the extension on September 18, and protestors have warned of more to come, including in early November to try and stop a shipment of nuclear waste from France.

They argue that it is irresponsible to promote nuclear power while there is no permanent storage site for the radioactive waste produced, either in Germany or anywhere in the world.

There are also concerns that nuclear power stations are sitting-duck targets for terrorists, as well as worries about the safety of some the country's ageing plants.

The Sueddeutsche Zeitung daily on Tuesday cited an unpublished report commissioned by the environment ministry as listing around 80 potential safety risks at the Biblis B reactor in western Germany, one of the country's oldest.

The plant, which has been generating electricity since 1976, was due to be switched off in 2012 but under Merkel's plans will now stay operating until 2020, the paper said.

The opposition Social Democrats (SPD) and the Greens, who were behind the original phase-out, have vowed to block the extension in the upper house of parliament, where Merkel's coalition lost its majority in May.

Merkel's government hopes to be able to circumvent the upper house with the legislation, however.

Around 300 people braved rain on Tuesday to protest the plans outside Merkel's chancellery in Berlin.

earlier related report
Austria disappointed by Germany's nuclear plans
Vienna (AFP) Sept 28, 2010 - Austria, which has outlawed nuclear energy, expressed disappointment Tuesday at the decision by neighbouring Germany to postpone by more than a decade its planned phase-out of nuclear power.

"There's only one thing that is enduring about nuclear energy and that is the risk," Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann said in an official reaction to the decision by the German cabinet to extend the lifetime of Gernany's nuclear reactors by up to 14 years.

Environment minister Nikolaus Berlakovich described Berlin's decision as a "setback", adding that Germany "would have been an important partner for Austria."

Austria passed a law in 1978 prohibiting the use of nuclear energy for electricity generation.

It has repeatedly expressed concern about the safety of a number of nuclear power plants in neighbouring countries, such as Germany, Slovakia and Slovenia.

Berlakovich said his overriding concern was "maximum safety" and Austria would ask Germany to explain what impact its decision might have for its neighbour at a bilateral meeting next month.

Germany, too, is a country with strong public misgivings about the safety of nuclear power and the German government in 2000 under ex-chancellor Gerhard Schroeder passed legislation to switch off the last of its 17 reactors by around 2020.

But the current centre-right administration under Angela Merkel wants to extend the lifetime of the reactors by more than a decade so that nuclear power will remain part of Germany's energy mix until around 2035.

The Austrian government said the German Isar 1 power plant in Bavaria not far from the Austrian border should be shut down "if all the safety shortcomings are not rectified sufficiently."

The environmental group Greenpeace urged chancellor Faymann to summon the German ambassador to explain Berlin's decision.

"The junk reactor Isar-1 is an immense risk," Greenpeace said in a statement.

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