Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday pledged a three-month pause in her government's plan to extend the running times of Germany's nuclear power plants.

She said that this would mean that some of the oldest reactors will be turned off, at least temporarily, almost immediately.

Merkel said that the risks of a meltdown at the Fukushima atomic reactors in Japan, triggered by the massive earthquake and subsequent tsunami in the region, had shown the world that nuclear safety should be reevaluated.

"The events in Japan have taught us that something, which all scientific data suggested to be impossible, could become a reality after all," Merkel told reporters in Berlin, having first said how her thoughts, and Germany's, were with the Japanese people. "It's taught us that risks that were considered absolutely improbable still aren't impossible."

It's raining Itoldyousos on her.

_{*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.}