Opinion: atomic demolition carries high risks for taxpayers – THE WORLD

Germany should take, according to a government report, the provisions of the multibillion-dollar nuclear companies for the nuclear demolition under public control. “Be a long-term financial needs can not be permanently ensured by leaving funds with the operating companies,” it says in the opinion of the firm Becker Büttner Held, is available to the Reuters news agency.

recommended a fund under public law, the flow should be at least a portion of the roughly 36 billion euros in provisions that have built the corporations. Otherwise, it is not inconceivable “that the public sector could face substantial costs for the complete termination of the peaceful uses of nuclear energy, including all subsequent costs.”

The Federal Government In view of the ailing four nuclear power plant operators E.ON, RWE, EnBW and Vattenfall concerned that the decades-long commitments to nuclear demolition and disposal of the waste could not be met. Concerns were fueled by the splitting of the E.on group, which wants to concentrate on more promising business areas such as renewable energy.

So, the question arose as to what happens in the event of bankruptcy of the operating company for the power plants with the provisions and how to avert risks. For this, the report was commissioned.

Are the provisions?

Obscure is also the one to what extent the provisions that are bound in power plants and other assets that can be made liquid. Secondly, it is not known due to lack of experience, whether the amounts even ever be enough. Although it is also the opinion no concrete answer. However, there are “risks factual and legal nature that the choice made by the operators, financial provision relating to nuclear power is not enough,” says the paper 152 pages long.

Photo: Infographic The World Germany’s nuclear power plants – and their remaining maturities

The appraiser shall submit to the Government therefore close to various options. Although the bankruptcy case, an operating company takes the parent company liable on. This liability is limited at a group splitting for five years. However, decades are estimated for nuclear waste disposal. The government could, however, provide by law that the continued liability runs longer.

In addition, can also be requested by the corporations, internal funds from the scattered provisions to form, to make them more visible. This could at least about the demolition of the nuclear plant are covered.

Better, however, was likely an external fund solution just for the final disposal costs. “As a viable one embodiment of an external fund raises the establishment of a public foundation is, in the then (gradually or possibly completely directly) the necessary funding should be loaded from the resolved provisions.”

companies had refused to fund solution

A public foundation would facilitate state control of the funds. She had already had discussions during the coalition negotiations, but was no longer mentioned in the

contract. Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel (SPD) had stated before the submission of the report, he considered the current legal basis for safe enough.

The companies had refused to fund solution and stresses which provisions are safe with them. At the same time, however, willingness to talk with the government signaled. There is a joint responsibility of the policy, said RWE CEO Peter Terium.

The Greens demanded that the government act quickly. “The government evaluators are very much in the we require public funds. The time now is no longer whether, but only the how,” said the nuclear spokeswoman Sylvia Kotting-Uhl.

Because of doubts about the safety of these provisions be fully verified. “For this we are in a first step with a stress test, the financial statements of the operator check,” it says in a letter Gabriel to the parliament for the CDU and the SPD, is available to the German Press Agency.

“21.520307823856″

reader comments are hidden.

// The following are highly recommended additional parameters. var disqus_identifier = 138636131; // article id where comments used var disqus_url=’http://www.welt.de/wirtschaft/article138636131/Atom-Abriss-birgt-hohe-Risiken-fuer-die-Steuerzahler.html’;//article url where comments disqusAd used function (e) {var s2 = document.createElement (“iframe”); s2.src = “http://appc.welt.de/static/welt/2012/pa-anzeigen/anzeige.html”; s2.width = 620; s2.height = 100; s2.style.overflow = ‘hidden’; s2.scrolling = “no”; s2.style.border = “none”; $ (E) .parent () append (s2). s2.scrolling = “no”; } Var dsqcounter = 1; / * * * DO NOT EDIT BELOW THIS LINE * * * / $ (document) .ready (function () {(function () {var disqusSsoEnabled = false;! Var experimental mode = $ .cookie (‘BIGP_EXPERIMENTAL’); if (experimental mode) {disqusSsoEnabled = true;} if (disqusSsoEnabled) {window.disqusid = $ .cookie (‘disqusid’); window.disqus_config = function () {this.sso = {name: “Login” button: “http : //img.welt.de/skins/welt/gfx/disqus_login.png “, url:” https://ssl.welt.de/user-web/disqus/login.jsp “logout” https: / /ssl.welt.de/user-web/disqus/logout.jsp “, width:” 500 “, height:” 500 “}; if (window.disqusid) {window.disqusid = window.disqusid.replace (new RegExp (“.”, “g”), ‘=’); window.disqusid = window.disqusid.replace (new RegExp (“_”, “g”), ”); this.page.remote_auth_s3 = window.disqusid; this.page.api_key = ’8JmKKMV2FgF5OgVCye4P0v3Q9aJK8eQOZ6VtqjfLaMgTzrNy465erNMGjGFhbW2X’; }}; }} ()); (Function () {var dsq = document.createElement (‘script’); dsq.type = ‘text / javascript’; dsq.async = true; dsq.src = ‘http: //’ + disqus_shortname + ‘.disqus. com / embed.js’; if ($ .cookie (‘ASsocialOptout’)! = ‘true’) {(document.getElementsByTagName (‘head’) [0] || document.getElementsByTagName (‘body’) [0]) .appendChild (dsq);} else {$ (‘.disqus .optoutSocMed’) html (optoutHTML) .show ();.}}) (); wDisqusCfg var = {disqussion: false}; asms.extend (asms.config, “wDisqus” wDisqusCfg); asms.general.ece.widgets.disqus.init (asms.config.wDisqus); }); blog comments powered by