Demonstrators in Germany Demand End of Nuclear Power

BERLIN — An estimated 120,000 people demonstrated across Germany on Monday, protest organizers said, demanding an end to nuclear power and increasing pressure on Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government to speed up the closing of the country’s 17 nuclear plants.

Demonstrations that take place each year over the Easter holidays have tended in the past to be pacifist, for instance, calling for the end of the war in Afghanistan. But this year, because of the 25th anniversary of the nuclear accident at the Chernobyl plant in Ukraine, in addition the nuclear crisis at the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan, the rallying theme was nuclear power.

Some of the biggest protests took place in the western state of Lower Saxony, where, according to the organizer’s spokesman, Peter Dickel, more than 20,000 demonstrators gathered near the Grohnde nuclear plant.

In the northern state of Schleswig-Holstein, 17,000 protested at the Krümmel nuclear plant, Mr. Dickel said.

In Bavaria, which has three nuclear plants, more than 15,000 people gathered near the Grafenrheinfeld power plant and thousands of others marched toward the Isar 1 and Isar 2 plants. “We are many, we will be more and we will not keep quiet until the last nuclear power plant is shut,” said Martin Heilig, an organizer of the demonstrations there.

Last month Mrs. Merkel imposed a moratorium on new nuclear plant construction. Seven of the oldest plants were temporarily closed, and the remaining 10 are undergoing security checks. She made it clear that she was going to reconsider her decision, made last year, to extend the life of the nuclear plants by an average of 12 years. “Japan had changed everything,” she said.

Mrs. Merkel has already set up two committees, one to consider how nuclear energy could be phased out earlier than the mid 2030s and the other to see what impact the end of nuclear power would have on energy prices. They are expected to complete their work by June.

Despite her U-turn on energy policy, the Greens party was swept into power in the state of Baden-Württemberg last month. It is the first time the Greens will head a state government. On Monday, Winfried Kretschmann, premier designate of the Green-led government in Baden-Württemberg, was putting the finishing touches to his coalition with the Social Democrats — thus ending 58 years of conservative government.

Stricter E.U. tests sought

Austria’s environment minister said safety tests for European nuclear plants must be mandatory and take into account the possibility of terror attacks, The Associated Press reported on Monday from Vienna.

European Union nations agreed last month to submit their plants to tests, but Nikolaus Berlakovich said Monday draft criteria for the tests do not go far enough and “must incorporate human influences such as plane crashes or terror attacks.”