Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and executives of four power companies were to sign the deal in Berlin later Monday. The government and utilities approved the nuclear phaseout a year ago, but needed time to negotiate details of the legislation to be submitted to parliament. The last of the power companies, E.On, approved the deal Sunday. Anti-nuclear activists oppose the deal, which sets no fixed date for the last plant to close, because they want a quicker shut down. Pro-nuclear politicians do no want Germany to abandon nuclear power and warn that it could impede efforts to curb emissions of greenhouse gases in line with the international pact signed in 1997 in Kyoto, Japan, by forcing Germany to switch to other fuels, such as oil.
Nuclear plants provide almost a third of German electricity.
The government has said it plans to promote other energy sources, including wind power. The accord says the nuclear plants should have a standard life span of 32 years, which would see Germany's newest nuclear plant shutting down in 2021. The first of the plants, at Stade in northern Germany, is to close in 2003. Utilities, in turn, have made plain that they would look to future governments to stop the phaseout. E.On chairman Ulrich Hartmann insisted that ''nothing in life is irreversible.'' ''I'm sure that nuclear energy will still play an important role in the future,'' he said in an interview with the daily Die Welt.