Angela Merkel's cabinet approved a draft law today that adopted recommendations requiring Germany's utilities to pay 23.3 billion euros ($25.98 billion) into a state fund to cover the costs of storing nuclear waste.
BERLIN:
Chancellor Angela Merkel's cabinet approved a draft law today that adopted recommendations requiring Germany's utilities to pay 23.3 billion euros ($25.98 billion) into a state fund to cover the costs of storing nuclear waste, government sources said.
The new law will also close a loophole to ensure that if companies split up, they will still remain liable towards the newly established state fund, the sources said.
A 19-member commission recommended in late April that Germany's "big four" power firms - E.ON, RWE, EnBW and Vattenfall - pay a total 23.3 billion euros ($26 billion) to remove unwanted long-term liability for the storage of nuclear waste.
The legacy costs stem from Germany's decision to end nuclear power by 2022 following Japan's Fukushima disaster five years ago.
The new law will also close a loophole to ensure that if companies split up, they will still remain liable towards the newly established state fund, the sources said.
A 19-member commission recommended in late April that Germany's "big four" power firms - E.ON, RWE, EnBW and Vattenfall - pay a total 23.3 billion euros ($26 billion) to remove unwanted long-term liability for the storage of nuclear waste.
The legacy costs stem from Germany's decision to end nuclear power by 2022 following Japan's Fukushima disaster five years ago.
© Thomson Reuters 2016
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