German lawmakers approve compensation for accelerated nuclear phase-out

2021-06-11 14:06:03 GMT2021-06-11 22:06:03(Beijing Time) Xinhua English

BERLIN, June 11 (Xinhua) -- Germany's Bundestag (lower house of Parliament) gave its approval on Friday to the federal government's plan to pay nuclear station operators 2.4 billion euros (2.9 billion U.S. dollars) in compensation for losses incurred due to the country's accelerated nuclear phase-out.

In a "final and amicable agreement," the affected utilities decided to end all pending legal disputes and ongoing administrative proceedings in connection with the nuclear phase-out, according to the German government.

With the compensation, the government implemented a ruling by the Federal Constitutional Court, which had said that the country's nuclear phase-out was legal, but had called for compensation.

"Years of legal disputes over the accelerated nuclear phase-out following the Fukushima reactor disaster in 2011 have thus come to an end," the government noted.

In the wake of the 2011 Fukushima disaster, Germany accelerated its already planned nuclear phase-out. The last nuclear power plant in the country is scheduled to go offline by the end of 2022 at the latest.

The Bundesrat (upper house of Parliament) will now discuss the bill in a further procedure. The law is scheduled to enter into force at the end of October. (1 euro = 1.22 U.S. dollars) Enditem

| PRINT | RSS