“Deutsche Bahn must contribute millions to nuclear fund”

German national railway company Deutsche Bahn will have to indirectly contribute around 350 million euros to the state-administered fund to finance interim and final storage of nuclear waste in 2017, report Jürgen Flauger and Dieter Flockenbrock for Handelsblatt. A Bahn spokesperson said the obligation is the result of power supply contracts between DB and German utility EnBW. The railway company has shares in EnBW, which operates the Neckarwestheim nuclear power plant. “The contracts not only provide a reliable power supply to Deutsche Bahn, but also obligate the company to partake in the operational, dismantling and waste disposal costs,” write Flauger and Flockenbrock. Around 16 percent of Bahn’s power consumption is covered by nuclear. The company is unlikely to be the only business other than the nuclear plant operators themselves that will have to contribute to financing interim and final storage of nuclear waste, the article says: “A few local utilities will probably also have to contribute.”