Germany's coalition government has made a reversal of policy by announcing that all the country's nuclear plants will be phased out by 2022. The move was prompted by the crisis gripping Japan's Fukushima nuclear power plant.

Germany's coalition government has made a reversal of policy by announcing that all the country's nuclear plants will be phased out by 2022.

Anti-nuclear power activists demonstrated outside the Chancellery building in Berlin on the same day that Germany's governing coalition said it will shut down all the country's nuclear power plants by 2022.

The decision was prompted by Japan's nuclear disaster. It paves the way for Germany to become the first major industrialized nation to go nuclear-free in years.

It also completes a remarkable about-face for Chancellor Angela Merkel's administration. Only late last year it had pushed through a plan to extend the life span of the country's 17 reactors.

But Merkel said that Japan's helplessness in the face of the Fukushima disaster made her rethink the risks of the technology.

Graphic on the countries that rely the most on nuclear power.

She said, "We will abandon nuclear power step-by-step by the end of 2022. This path is a big challenge for Germany, but above all it means huge opportunites for future generations. As a country, we think that we can become pioneers on the way to create an age of renewable energy.

We can - as the first industrialized nation - accomplish such a turnaround to high-efficient and renewable energies, without compromising exports, development, technology and jobs."

The decision to abandon nuclear energy still requires parliamentary approval.

Germany's seven-oldest reactors were taken off the grid pending safety inspections following Japan's March twin disasters. They will remain offline permanently.

Merkel also stressed that the country's energy supply chain needs a new structure, based on greater investment in renewable energies, efficiency gains and overhauling the electricity grid.

Before March, just under a quarter of Germany's electricity was produced by nuclear power.

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