German Prez inks act on N-reactors life span

They charged the government of deliberately avoiding a debate in the upper house,where it has no majority since May,and asked the President to block it.

But,Wulff has no misgivings about the constitutional validity of the legislation.

After intensive and thorough examination of all constitutional aspects,he signed the bill on Wednesday, the presidential office said in a press statement.

Soon after its signing,the opposition parties vowed to carry out their threat to take the issue to the countrys highest court.

The new law is unconstitutional not only because of bypassing the Bundesrat,but it also lowers the level of security standards for atomic reactors,Parliamentary leader of the Green Party,Juergen Trittin said.

The Social Democratic Party SPD criticised the government for reversing the decision taken by an SPD-led government to phase out all reactors by 2020 and sidestepping the upper house in passing the legislation.

Five federal states ruled by the SPD will jointly challenge the new law at the Federal Constitutional Court,according to Kurt Beck,State Premier of Rhineland Palatinate.

Recent opinion polls showed that more than 60 per cent of the German public are against extending the life of the reactors. The new law,which is scheduled to come into force at the beginning of next year,will allow Germanys seven older reactors,which have been operating since 1975,to generate electricity for eight more years while the remaining plants will be shut down after 14 years.

It is estimated that some of the reactors will remain in operation at least until 2035.

President Wulff also singed an accompanying legislation on introducing a nuclear fuel levy on the countrys four major energy giants operating the reactors,which is expected to bring an annual revenue of 2.3 billion euros over a period of six years.

In return for extending the life of the reactors,the energy companies pledged to pay up to 16.9 billion euros into a special fund for developing renewable energy sources.

The government defended its new energy concept saying extending the life of the reactors and the nuclear fuel tax will bring a total revenue of around 30 billion euros.

This support from the atom industry is very crucial to realise the governments goal of increasing the share of renewable energy in electricity supply to 80 per cent by 2050,said German Environment Minister Norbert Roettgen.

This goal will not only halve the use of conventional energy,but will also reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 80 per cent,he said.