German utility association votes to phase out nuclear power by 2020

The Associated Press reports that, overriding opposition by the utility owners of Germany's 17 atomic reactors, the German electrical utility association has voted to call upon the German government to phase out atomic power by 2020. This revives the "German Nuclear Consensus" hammered out in 2000 by the ruling Social Democratic and Green Party coalition at that time. Angela Merkel and her Conservative Party coalition have spent the past several years working to overturn the nuclear phase out consensus. But in the aftermath of the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe, Merkel has moved to shut down Germany's pre-1980 reactors for a safety review, and has also moved to revisit the nuclear phase out agreement which she previously attempted to undo.