BERLIN -- Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and leading energy companies formally signed an agreement Monday to shut down Germany's 19 nuclear power plants, making it the world's largest industrialized nation to willingly forgo the technology.
Though it could take decades to complete, the plan underscores the divide between Europe and the United States on environmental policy. President Bush last month unveiled measures to promote the building of more nuclear plants, and many now operating are expected to apply to extend their operating license.
After the signing ceremony in Berlin, Schroeder said that while it was up to every country to design its own energy policy, "naturally we would hope that many follow our example."
The pact limits nuclear plants, which provide nearly a third of Germany's electricity, to an average 32 years of operation. That would likely see the most modern plants close around 2021 and see Germany join nations such as Italy and Austria in abandoning nuclear power.
Still, some environmentalists say that timetable is far too long while German conservatives argue that abandoning atomic power is a mistake. Power company executives say they haven't given up hope that a future government would scrap the plan.
The nuclear shutdown still must be approved by the Cabinet and parliament, where Schroeder's Social Democrats hold the majority along with the environmentalist Greens.
Eliminating nuclear power is a pet cause of the Greens, who for years backed protests focused on halting nuclear waste transports, which the pact will end by mid-2005.
Police deployed thousands of officers Monday to protect the latest shipment from demonstrators while the environmentalist group Greenpeace placed containers of contaminated soil from reprocessing plants in France and England outside the headquarters of the Social Democrats and Greens.
About 30 anti-nuclear activists beat drums and erected a model nuclear reactor that belched orange fumes during the signing ceremony at the new chancellery in Berlin.
The leading opposition party, the conservative Christian Democrats, argued that eliminating nuclear energy would force Germany to use dirtier power sources. That could make it more difficult to curb emissions as outlined by the landmark 1997 Kyoto agreement on greenhouse gases.
"Abandoning atomic energy is a historic failure," said Ulrich Mueller, a Christian Democrat who is environment minister of Baden-Wuerttemberg state.
But Schroeder said the Kyoto agreement meant Germany also had the responsibility to establish environmentally friendly power sources, a stance it will take to a U.N. climate conference next month in the former German capital Bonn.
"Germany truly will meet its responsibilities for climate protection," Schroeder pledged.
The U.S. administration opposes the Kyoto accord.
Monday's signing comes a full year after Schroeder hammered out a preliminary phase-out plan with industry leaders. E.On, the last of the four power companies involved to approve the deal, only did so Sunday.
But whether the German nuclear plan would survive a change in government remains open. Some conservatives, who hope to oust Schroeder in parliamentary elections next year, have said they will reverse the policy -- a move that industry would welcome.
E.On chairman Ulrich Hartmann, speaking after Schroeder at Monday's ceremony, said the signing was "no reason to celebrate for us," arguing that the policy was misguided given limited energy resources and the need to cut emissions of carbon dioxide.
"Nothing in life is irreversible," he insisted in an interview published Monday in Die Welt newspaper, though adding that industry would "keep to the agreements with the government as long as it keeps to them."
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