Nuclear power plant operators call for 276 million euros in compensation

German nuclear power plant operators E.ON, RWE and EnBW have called for 276 million euros in compensation for investments they made after the government decided in 2010 to extend plant lifetimes before reversing that decision some months later in the wake of the Fukushima nuclear accident, reports Malte Kreutzfeldt in tageszeitung (taz). The environment ministry confirmed the sum, but said it was unclear whether and to what extent the demands would be met, writes Kreutzfeldt. However, 250 million euros had already been earmarked in the 2020 federal budget. Experts doubt that companies made extensive investments in the few months between the decision to extend lifetimes and its reversal, Kreutzfeldt adds.

The German Nuclear Exit Act had to be amended in 2018 because the German Constitutional Court ruled that plant operators had made investment decisions in good faith after another amendment, adopted in 2010, awarded them longer run-times that were curbed again after the 2011 Fukushima nuclear accident and were therefore entitled to compensation. The companies could be entitled to compensation for investments made, but also for electricity volumes that they were promised in the first nuclear phaseout plan from 2002 but which were cut with the stricter 2011 post-Fukushima decision.