The operator of the nuclear power plant in Hamm-Uentrop is on the brink of insolvency. North Rhine-Westphalia is now attempting to shift the demolition costs to the federal government.
The nuclear power plant in Hamm-Uentrop, North Rhine-Westphalia, which has been decommissioned since 1989, is becoming a financial burden for the public sector. According to Mona Neubaur (Green Party), the state’s Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy, the plant’s operating company, Hochtemperatur-Kernkraftwerk GmbH (HKG), is facing insolvency. The state of North Rhine-Westphalia must now step in and commission companies to dismantle the facility. The costs for this are estimated at one billion euros.
However, Neubaur stated on Thursday that the bills would be forwarded to the federal government, as they bear the financial responsibility. “Since the state is implementing the Atomic Energy Act on behalf of the federal government, we will claim the costs from them,” she said. The state cites Article 104a, Paragraph 2 of the Basic Law, which states: “If the states act on behalf of the federal government, the federal government shall bear the resulting expenses.” According to insiders, North Rhine-Westphalia has a good chance of asserting this right.
Insolvency protects operator from costs
HKG, the operating company in which the energy group RWE and the Aachen municipal utilities have stakes, had initially stated that it would have to bear the decommissioning costs. However, Neubaur told the state parliament’s economic committee that the operator’s financial situation was acutely endangered, and they intended to file for insolvency in the coming weeks. With impending insolvency, the obligation to cover demolition costs becomes void.
At the end of last week, the Düsseldorf Regional Court dismissed a lawsuit by the operating company that sought to clarify whether the federal government and the state of North Rhine-Westphalia were responsible for the demolition costs.
The reactor in Hamm-Uentrop, a so-called pebble bed high-temperature reactor, was the only one of its kind in Germany and was developed by researchers from North Rhine-Westphalia. After only three years of trial operation, the facility was shut down in 1989.
