Germany’s Nuclear Phase-Out Generates Lawsuits

On 3 June, after meeting with the premiers of German states, German Chancellor Angela Merkel announced that Germany's abandonment of civilian nuclear power will be a phased process, ending in 2022 as the country’s last nuclear power station is shuttered. Merkel said, "It will be completely clear that each nuclear power station will have a final operating date, and with that, there will be complete clarity and no possibility of any evasion."

Germany's nuclear power station operating companies are subsequently now preparing to take legal action against the government's decision, stating that the new plan to shutter the nuclear stations is both too rigid and will prove more costly to the companies than the previous 2000 center-left government’s nuclear phase-out plan, Spiegel Online reported.

One of the program’s most outspoken critics, Swedish power company Vattenfall CEO’s Oystein Loseth, whose corporation partly owns three German nuclear power plants and operates two more, is demanding "fair compensation for our losses as a result of the government's decision."

By. Charles Kennedy, Deputy Editor OilPrice.com