Electric utility service giant E.ON's Chief Executive Officer Johannes Teyssen said the company was open to the concept of forming a public trust to pay for decommissioning Germany's nuclear power plants.
Germany represents the most extreme reaction to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant disaster that was prompted by an 8.9-magnitude earthquake and a subsequent tsunami in early March 2011. While Japan itself is considering a restart to its nuclear power industry, Germany has declared its intention to take all 17 of its nuclear power plants permanently offline, closing out a source of 17.7 percent of the county's national electricity supply.
The deadline for the shutdown is 2022.
Reportedly, utility companies and the government have been in talks that purportedly will create a “bad bank” scenario for the country's nuclear power plants. That strategy, used by some banks to unwind toxic assets during the economic downturn that began in 2007, isolates unprofitable assets from profitable ones, allowing companies to stay afloat despite sizable losses.
“We wouldn't refuse to enter such a discussion," German magazine Der Spiegel quoted Teyssen as saying. "But so far we haven't received an invitation,” from the government to discuss a public foundation to fund decommissioning plants.
There are four nuclear plant operators in Germany: E.ON, RWE, EnBW and Vattenfall of Sweden Collectively, they have set aside $44.1 billion for decommissioning and for managing nuclear waste after plants are shut down, Reuters reported.
At the same time, E.ON is suing the government for $10 billion for its decision to close down the country's nuclear power plants. RWE is suing for $2.5 billion and Vattenfall is seeking $5.7 billion.