German minister wants return to nuclear phase-out law: report

London (Platts)--11Apr2011/657 am EDT/1057 GMT

The German government should cancel its plans to extend the run-times of the country's nuclear reactors after nuclear operators decided to stop payments into a renewable energy fund, environment minister Norbert Roettgen said in an interview Monday.

The minister, a senior member of Chancellor Angela Merkel's CDU party, told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) that Germany should instead stick to the previous nuclear phase-out bill, brought in by a so-called 'red-green' government coalition in 2002, which stipulated a complete exit from nuclear power by 2022.

Merkel's current coalition with the liberal FDP last year overturned the nuclear phase-out by granting Germany's 17 reactors a life-span extension by an average of 12 years, introducing a new nuclear fuel tax with plant operators agreeing on payments into a renewable energy fund.

In the light of events in Japan, Merkel on March 14 called for a nuclear moratorium, freezing the new law for three months and halting seven reactors that were built before 1980 for a safety review with a new risk assessment.

Roettgen said in the interview there was no basis for a nuclear extension after the nuclear operators decided to stop their payments into the renewable energy fund.

"This is a paradigm shift. For the unilateral decision of the nuclear plant operators to adjust the payments, assumes that there is a complete withdrawal from nuclear life extension. Those payments are advance payments on the additional profits from the life extensions," the minister said in the interview published in Monday's FAZ.

According to Germany media reports this weekend, the environment minister also agreed with the economy minister Rainer Bruederle (FDP) on a six-point action plan on how to accelerate the switch from nuclear power with extra government subsidies mainly supporting offshore wind power and grid expansion.

This plan will form the basis for an energy policy summit between the chancellor and the country's 16 states this Friday in Berlin, the reports said.

--Andreas Franke, andreas_franke@platts.com

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