German energy companies are short of as much as 30 billion euros ($34 billion) of the money they need to set aside to build a safe disposal site for nuclear waste as part of the country's exit from nuclear power, Spiegel Online reported on Monday.
E.ON, RWE, EnBW and Vattenfall are due to switch off their nuclear plants by a 2022 deadline set by Chancellor Angela Merkel's government after the Fukushima disaster in Japan in 2011.
Germany’s nuclear industry is fighting Berlin over a plan to transfer the risks of shutting down facilities to a publicly owned foundation that would act as a “bad bank”.
The power companies are engaged in a decommissioning exercise with an estimated cost of more than €30bn after Berlin announced an accelerated exit from nuclear energy following the Fukushima disaster in 2011. The work includes demolishing nuclear plants and disposing of radioactive waste.
PARIS, March 1 (Reuters) - French police have searched the office of EDF Chief Executive Henri Proglio as part of a German investigation into the 2010 purchase of EDF's stake in utility EnBW by the state of Baden-Wuerttemberg, a source close to the matter said.
German prosecutors opened preliminary proceedings in July into alleged links between Morgan Stanley's top dealmaker in Germany and one of Baden-Wuerttemberg's top politicians relating to the state's purchase of shares in EnBW.
German utility EnBW will not file a legal complaint at the Constitutional Court [Bundesverfassungsgericht] against the German government's nuclear exit bill, the company said Monday.
Following intensive legal consultation, the company has been advised that due to its ownership structure it may lack the right to file such a complaint, it said.
The German government ill consider setting up a publicly administered fund to manage the disposal of nuclear waste from its power plants, environment minister Norbert Röttgen said following the publication of a Greenpeace report on Wednesday.
Greenpeace has called for a public fund because it fears German nuclear operators Eon, RWE, EnBW and Vattenfall may go bankrupt or try to wriggle out of their obligations after 2022, when the last of Germany’s reactors are due to close.
When Germany announced its plan to phase out nuclear power stations last month, shares in the big four German power companies rose. The agreement made with the German government would see Eon, RWE, EnBW and Vattenfall pay a nuclear-fuel rods tax of EUR2.3bn until 2016 - but the market had been expecting worse.
But today Moody's has warned that the impact of the tax might yet force a downgrade of the companies' credit ratings.
FRANKFURT, Oct. 4 (Reuters) - German utilities' gamble of sacrificing near-term profits in exchange for extending the lifespans of their 17 nuclear plants is pressuring shares and may misfire if the political situation changes.
Last month, the government agreed with the four operators of Germany's nuclear power plants to extend the plants' life by 12 years on average in exchange for at least 31 billions euros ($42.45 billion) of payments.
The German opposition has reacted angrily over revelations that the government, as part of its decision to extend the life of nuclear power in Germany to the mid 2030s, struck a deal with the nuclear industry to shield it from unfavorable future political decisions.
(Reuters) - Two key German ministers took different positions on Monday on the length of time that nuclear power plants should be extended after Chancellor Angela Merkel reduced expectations for a long extension.
LINGEN, Germany - (Dow Jones)- German Chancellor Angela Merkel Thursday said she is in favor of the country's nuclear power plant operators making further financial contributions in return for longer reactor operating lives, which would come on top of a tax on nuclear fuel her government has proposed to help reduce the public budget deficit.
