The Nuclear Waste Disposal Fund () is a German federal fund to manage the financial endowment for long-term
nuclear waste
Radioactive waste is a type of hazardous waste that contains radioactive material. It is a result of many activities, including nuclear medicine, nuclear research, nuclear power generation, nuclear decommissioning, rare-earth mining, and nuclear ...
storage sites. The fund is organised as a
trust
Trust often refers to:
* Trust (social science), confidence in or dependence on a person or quality
It may also refer to:
Business and law
* Trust (law), a legal relationship in which one person holds property for another's benefit
* Trust (bu ...
and falls into the remit of the
Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy. However, the closure of all power stations must be followed by finding a permanent nuclear graveyard by the government's 2031 deadline.
Background
In the aftermath of the nuclear disaster in
Fukushima in 2011, the German government decided to phase out nuclear energy production. All German nuclear power plants must therefore be shut down by 2022. Power plant operators were made responsible for the dismantling and disposal of the resulting nuclear waste. To address concerns that the disposal of nuclear waste may be dependent on the financial stability of those operators, the long-term financial responsibility was shifted to a trust fund managed by a federal government agency - the "nuclear fund" (German: "''Atomfonds"'').
The fund
On July 3, 2017, the four German nuclear power plant operators
E.ON
E.ON SE is a European multinational electric utility company based in Essen, Germany. It operates as one of the world's largest investor-owned electric utility service providers. The name originates from the Latin word '' aeon'', derived from ...
,
EnBW
EnBW Energie Baden-Württemberg AG, or simply EnBW, is a publicly-traded energy industry, energy company headquartered in Karlsruhe, Germany.
History Foundation and development
EnBW came into existence on 1 January 1997 as a result of the merge ...
,
RWE
RWE AG is a German multinational energy company headquartered in Essen. It generates and trades electricity in the Asia-Pacific region, Europe and the United States.
In July 2020, RWE completed a far-reaching asset swap deal with E.ON first ...
and
Vattenfall
Vattenfall is a Swedish multinational corporation, multinational electrical power industry, power company owned by the List of government enterprises of Sweden, Swedish state. Beyond Sweden, the company generates power in Denmark, Finland, Germa ...
have transferred the legally stipulated basic contribution of € 17.9 billion as well as a 35 percent risk premium of € 6.2 billion to the
Bundesbank
The Deutsche Bundesbank (, , colloquially Buba, sometimes alternatively abbreviated as BBk or DBB) is the national central bank for Germany within the Eurosystem. It was the German central bank from 1957 to 1998, issuing the Deutsche Mark (DM). ...
. The resulting sum of € 24.1 billion euros represents the capital stock of the nuclear fund.
In the future, the fund is expected invest its assets in the capital markets and fund the search for suitable intermediate and final waste storage sites with the help of investment income. The selection of the investment instruments of this first German
sovereign wealth fund
A sovereign wealth fund (SWF), or sovereign investment fund, is a state-owned investment fund that invests in real and financial assets such as stocks, Bond (finance), bonds, real estate, precious metals, or in alternative investments such as ...
are based on sustainability criteria and must be in line with ''
Environment Social Governance''.
Anja Mikus has been appointed CEO of the fund.
Investments
As of July 2018, the fund has invested about 10% of its assets. €2.5 billion had been invested in highly liquid
government bond
A government bond or sovereign bond is a form of Bond (finance), bond issued by a government to support government spending, public spending. It generally includes a commitment to pay periodic interest, called Coupon (finance), coupon payments' ...
s. The remaining assets were held as cash with the Bundesbank which resulted in a loss of €70 million in the funds first year due to the negative interest environment.
See also
Nuclear Power in Germany
Nuclear power was used in Germany from the 1960s until it was fully phased out in April 2023.
German nuclear power began with research reactors in the 1950s and 1960s, with the first commercial plant coming online in 1969. By 1990, nuclear powe ...
References
{{Reflist
External links
www.entsorgungsfonds.de
Sovereign wealth funds
Foundations based in Germany
2017 establishments in Germany
Radioactive waste disposal