THE German federal government has approved a draft law that will see the country’s nuclear power station operators pay into a €23.556bn (US$26bn) decommissioning, waste storage and disposal fund. In 2011, following the meltdown at Fukushima in Japan, Germany took the decision to phase out nuclear energy generation and immediately withdrew the operating licences of eight reactors. Nine more must close down by 2022. Ever since, there has been wrangling and uncertainty about who would bear responsibility for decommissioning and cleanup of nuclear sites, and waste storage. The new deal was proposed in April by a government commission set up to review the funding of the withdrawal of nuclear energy – the Kommission zur Überprüfung der Finanzierung des Kernenergieausstiegs (KFK) – and has now been accepted. The operators, E.ON, RWE, Vattenfall and EnBW, will share responsibility for the main costs, and will pay €17.389bn, along with a risk premium of 35.47%, €6.167bn, into the cleanup fund, which has been structured as a public foundation. The money can be paid as a lump sum or in instalments.
Chemical Engineer 20th Oct 2016 read more »