Plant Shutdown Reignites German Nuclear Controversy. By Geir Moulson, AP, July 6, 2009. "Chancellor Angela Merkel's center-left rivals made it clear Monday they will make nuclear power a major issue in the September national election, following a weekend shutdown at a troubled German nuclear plant. The plant at Kruemmel, near Hamburg, shut down automatically on Saturday following a short-circuit in a transformer. The plant had reopened only last month after a two-year closure that followed a fire in another transformer in 2007. That offered the center-left Social Democrats -- currently the conservative Merkel's partners in a 'grand coalition' of Germany's biggest parties that both hope to end in Sept. 27 elections -- a chance to highlight a key policy difference. The Social Democrats have fiercely defended the decision by Germany's previous government, which they led, to phase out Germany's 17 nuclear power plants by 2021. Merkel's Christian Democratic Union opposes abandoning nuclear energy and wants to extend some reactors' lives."