Financing of the site selection procedure

Financing Source: dpa pa/Ohlenschläger

The polluters of the radioactive waste, i.e. the operators of the nuclear power plants, have provided around 24 billion euros for the safekeeping of the legacies of the nuclear age. They transferred the amount to a public fund in July 2017. All upcoming costs for interim and final storage are now to be financed from the fund. If the amount is not sufficient, the taxpayer will be responsible for the remaining costs, as there is no provision for subsequent liability on the part of the operators.

The details of the funding are regulated in the Site Selection Act (StandAG). The costs incurred in the site selection procedure are charged to the fund by both the procedure leader, BASE, and the project sponsor, Bundesgesellschaft für Endlagerung mbH.

Costs charged to the Fund include expenses for:

• the participation procedure (e.g. information platform, specialist conference on sub-areas),
• the identification of sub-areas and suitable siting regions,
• surface and underground exploration,
• research and development in connection with site selection.

For the administration and profitable investment of the money, the federal government has established the "Nuclear Waste Management Financing Fund" foundation. This took up its work in June 2017, after the EU Commission had given the green light for the law on the reorganisation of responsibility in nuclear waste management. Prior to this, the Bundestag and Bundesrat had passed the law in December 2016. The regulation is based on recommendations of the Commission for the Review of the Financing of the Nuclear Phase-out (KFK). This commission was tasked with examining how the decommissioning and dismantling of nuclear power plants and the disposal of radioactive waste can be financed.