Vattenfall’s blooper strikes against Angela Merkel
BERLIN (AFP) - Hiccups at Swedish Vattenfall's ageing nuclear reactor has enlivened Germany's election campaign, potentially giving the centre-left the chance to chip away at Chancellor Angela Merkel's commanding lead in the polls.
| Related news: • Vattenfall's German headache grows • Vattenfall shuts down nuclear power plant • Traffic lights went out after nuclear plant incident • Swedish nuclear plant investigated after incidents |
"If these incidents don't come to an end, or if there is a serious one before the election, it could cost her the wished-for majority" in the September 27 vote, the Berliner Zeitung daily said in an editorial on Friday.
The Kruemmel reactor near Hamburg, one of Germany's oldest, underwent last weekend what its Swedish operator Vattenfall called an "emergency shutdown" after a short circuit in one of its transformers.
It was the second such incident in several days at the plant, which had only just re-opened after two years of repairs following a malfunction in a transformer that had caused a fire and a shutdown.
Embarrassingly, Vattenfall has since admitted that it failed to install a vital safety sensor, and on Thursday it said most of Kruemmel's 80,000 fuel rods had to be checked.
In the eyes of voters, it is unclear how the two biggest parties -- the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) and Angela Merkel's CDU/CSU conservatives -- differ to any great degree on most issues, including the recession.
But when it comes to nuclear power, it is obvious where they stand.
Germany decided in 2000 under SPD ex-chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's coalition with the Greens to make the country nuclear-free by about 2020, when Merkel's conservatives were in opposition.
The SPD says it plans to stick to this -- and on Thursday its chancellor candidate Frank-Walter Steinmeier moved to hammer this home, calling for Kruemmel to be shut down for good.
"The incidents at Kruemmel have shaken trust in nuclear energy in my view," said Steinmeier, who is also foreign minister and deputy chancellor.
Last Updated (Friday, 10 July 2009 10:44)
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