“Utilities relinquish compensation claims”

Nuclear plant operators in Germany revoked around 20 lawsuits against the state in return for government guarantees of a limited financial liability for the country’s nuclear phase-out, Stefan Schultz writes on Spiegel Online. The utilities E.ON, RWE, EnBW, Vattenfall and others formally informed parliament of their intention to waive compensation claims for hastily having to shut down eight nuclear reactors after the Fukushima nuclear accident in 2011, Schultz writes. According to Spiegel, the waived claims amounted to between 600 and 800 million euros. “The companies are being given legal security for the nuclear phase-out act in return,” he writes, adding that the plant operators will make a lump sum payment of 23 billion euros to settle their financial responsibility for managing the disposal of nuclear waste. However, the utilities will not relinquish a compensation claim for limiting the residual service life of their plants, a case in which Germany’s constitutional court last week ruled they were entitled to “adequate” compensation.

Read the article in German here.

Read more on last week’s judgement in the CLEW article Germany's constitutional court backs speedy nuclear exit.

Read more on Germany’s nuclear exit in the CLEW dossier The challenges of Germany’s nuclear phase-out.