Merkel... Did not come to the conclusion that nuclear power is too risky.
She wanted to do more nuclear, well aware of CO2, but Fukushima happened (killing zero victims, but hey) and she saw her policy would get her voted out office, and no potential replacement was going to do better, so she folded, in the hope that large investment in renewables would help. It didn't, because a renewable world is a 18th century world, and now we're going there
This seems to be your opinion when one can read it also differently. After Fukushima she and her government (backed by the coalition partner FDP) started a risk re-assessment process that involved two commissions (the reactor security commission and an ethics commission) that resulted in the government declaration below. Hence, the assessment was not done on a whim, it was backed by several months of work by experts. Could it still be a mere power play? Possible, but unlikely - she ran the risk of alienating her own party and to be seen as a flip-flopper.
