Shocked by the apocalyptic images of the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe, the German Chancellor, angela Merkel, surprised many by pulling the plug from seven outdated nuclear reactors but is now receiving even more surprising support from the unlikeliest of backers.  It's clear that the glowing love affair between the atomic industry and Ms Merkel's conservative CDU party is now a liability - too hot to handle - and the Germans are scared.  But the big energy companies, E.ON, RWE, EnBW and Vattenfall, are fighting back and are already warning of dark ages for Germany: an energy shortage and exploding energy costs. They want to extend the lifespan of all 17 nuclear plants and get the old reactors back on the grid after the safety checks and the three-month moratorium set by Merkel.  But political support for the nuclear industry, which has received Euro 100bn (?88bn) in government grants, is fading. Soon after the news of nuclear contamination and melting fuel rods in Japan, some 60,000 people demonstrated against the continued operation of the ageing Neckarwestheim plant, forming a 45km human chain from the plant to the city of Stuttgart.  The EU Energy Commissioner, G?nther Oettinger, a close Merkel ally, said that Europe needed to consider whether it could live without nuclear energy. His radical U-turn is a big surprise. In his time as CDU premier of Baden-Wuerttemberg, Oettinger was a stout defender of a "safe and clean" nuclear energy. Now he modestly comments on the incidents in Japan with: "We are all in the hands of God".  Merkel, the daughter of a protestant priest, also refers to some "higher forces" in order to combat the fierce attacks of her offended former friends. The hard-nosed nuclear lobby accuses her of sacrificing the atomic industry for selfish reasons, such as opinion polls and elections.  Only a couple of months ago, the powerful lobby suppressed a law that said all of Germany's nuclear power plants were to go off line by 2022 at the latest. This time, after Fukushima, Merkel is determined to remain an iron lady and to finish nuclear power once and for all. She needs new friends - new confedera