Germany's 'Unlawful' Closure of Nuclear Reactors

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Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland) - The decision by Germany's government to force the temporary shut-down of the Biblis nuclear plant in 2011 after the Japanese Fukushima nuclear accident earlier that year has been ruled unlawful by the country's Supreme Administrative Court.

The decision is a victory for plant owner RWE AG (OTC:RWEOY) (Essen, Germany) which is expected to seek compensation thought to be almost €200 million from the government for losses in that first three-month shut-down. Biblis was oneof the country's largest nuclear plants with a generating capacity of 2,000-megawatts (MW) from its two reactors.

The company, alongside Germany other nuclear operators Energie Baden-Württemberg AG (EnBW) (Karlsruhe, Germany), E.ON AG (OTC:EONGY) (Dusseldorf, Germany) and Vattenfall AB (Stockholm, Sweden) has had to swallow billions of euro in losses since the government made its surprise decision in May 2011 to ditch nuclear power by shutting down all 17 reactors over the next decade. For additional information, see May 30, 2011, article - Germany Votes to Dump Nuclear Power.

The first casualties of the shutdown process were the country's seven oldest nuclear reactors, including Biblis-A and Biblis-B, which were ordered offline for a three-month moratorium period in March 2011 after the Japanese accident. This was then made permanent a few months later. The court said that the legal grounds for closing the plant were not sound since RWE was not given enough time to respond to the forced shutdown. In that three-months, RWE suffered an estimated loss of €187 million ($255 million).

The other reactors shut down at that time were Isar 1, Unterweser, Brunsbuettel, Neckarwestheim 1, and Phillipsburg 1. In addition, the Kruemmel nuclear power plant owned by Vattenfall, which was already offline since 2009 following an accident, was ordered to stay shut. For additional information, see March 28, 2011, article - German Nuclear Plants Begin Shutdowns.

The court's decision will not affect the government's plan to exit nuclear power but it opens the way for the companies most affected to seek compensation for their losses.

RWE has put the cost of dismantling its two reactors at Biblis at €1.5 billion ($2.04 billion), which does not include the additional costs associated with storing the nuclear waste.

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