ESSEN (dpa-AFX) - Energy group Eon expects the last three nuclear power plants in Germany to be shut down as planned on April 15. "We have no indication that politicians are reconsidering their shutdown decision," CEO Leonhard Birnbaum said Wednesday. The planned end of power operation is not a technical decision, but a political one, he said. Eon subsidiary Preussenelektra operates Isar 2 in Essenbach, Bavaria, one of Germany's three remaining nuclear power plants.

"What is clear is that we are shutting down one of the safest, most productive and best plants in the world," Birnbaum stressed. Isar 2, he said, was one of only two plants in the world that had ever managed to produce more than 400 terawatt hours of electricity. "The other was our Grohnde nuclear power plant." According to Birnbaum, 400 terawatt hours is roughly equivalent to two and a half times the electricity consumed by all 40 million households in Germany each year.

"Isar is a world-class plant. It has been awarded ten times in its 35 years of operation as the most productive and safest plant in the world - out of more than 400 nuclear power plants."/tob/DP/tih