Nuclear power fills German ministry’s pension funds

The German interior ministry (BMI) has invested dozens of millions of euros in funds profiting from nuclear power plants abroad, Jakob Schlandt writes in Der Tagesspiegel. Around 100 million euros are currently invested in foreign nuclear plants, including the highly controversial ones in Belgium, which the German government has repeatedly said it wants to see shut down. Former environment minister Barbara Hendricks already said last year the investments should be discontinued as soon as possible, as Germany could not call for a shutdown of plants “from which it benefits financially.” Since then, however, further shares have been purchased, Schlandt says. In the new coalition agreement, the governing parties now say they want to achieve a “complete termination of all investments of state funds in foreign nuclear plants.” A spokesperson for the interior ministry said the “implementation details” for this divestment had yet to be clarified.

Read the article in German here.

For background on Germany’s nuclear exit, see the CLEW dossier The challenges of Germany‘s nuclear phase-out.