Germany is shutting down half of its six remaining nuclear plants, a year before the country draws the final curtain on its decades-long use of atomic power. The decision to phase out nuclear power and shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy was first taken by former Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder in 2002. His successor Angela Merkel reversed her decision to extended the lifetime of Germany's nuclear plants in the wake of the 2011 Fukushima disaster in Japan, and set 2022 as the deadline for shutting them down.