> Fukushima incident had a big impact on German public opinion. Merkel already went against public opinion when she put in place running time extensions in lat

> Fukushima incident had a big impact on German public opinion. Merkel already went against public opinion when she put in place running time extensions in late 2010 to delay the phase-out, that was massively controversial decision. Then only a few months later Fukushima blew up, so her already unpopular and controversial position became ultimately untannable. Particularly as many faults with German reactors were found during the [atom-moratorium](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atom-Moratorium https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atom-Moratorium) that was declared after Fukushima. Prior to that safety inspections were not even mandatory for the operators.