German firms to pay $24.6 bil. for nuclear waste www3.nhk.or.jp
The lower house of parliament in Germany has passed a bill to have the country's major utilities pay about 24.6 billion dollars to deal with nuclear waste.
The German government plans to phase out the country's nuclear power plants by 2022. The policy was drawn up following the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster.
The lower house on Thursday approved a bill that determines how much of the cost the government and 4 power companies will each assume for handling radioactive waste from nuclear plants.
The bill makes the government responsible for intermediate storage and permanent disposal of the nuclear waste.
Nuclear plant operators are required to pay 23.6 billion euro, or 24.6 billion dollars, into the fund set up by the government.
The upper house is also expected to approve the bill on Friday.
In Germany, the government and utilities have been sharply at odds over the cost of radioactive waste disposal.
The utilities welcome the legislation. They say they will withdraw lawsuits demanding the government pay compensation for its exit policy from nuclear energy.
Published Date:2016-12-16