Fission chips 2 Germany angela Merkel, the country's chancellor, has committed to shutting down all of the country's nuclear reactors by 2022, a task said by one minister to be as mammoth as the project to reunite East and West Germany in 1990. Monday's announcement, prompted by protests following Japan's nuclear disaster, will make Germany the first big industrialised nation to go nuclear-free in decades. It gives the country just over 10 years to find alternative sources for 23% of its energy.  "We will generate our own electricity from other sources," said Merkel, who added that the plans would give Germany a chance to be a "trailblazer" for renewable energy, and could eventually earn, rather than cost, the country money.