Written by Abhishek Roy, GEI Associate
In today’s technologically developed world, where new forms of energy are arising frequently, and the need for efficient and cheap energy is sought, nuclear energy has become a controversial source of energy from an economic, scientific, social and ethical perspective.
In 2010, Germany attempted and succeeded in implemented a nuclear levy, ‘Kernbrennstoffsteuegesetz’ which was a 6 year decision up until the end of 2016. Since the 2010 taxation adoption, each gram of fissile nuclear fuel loaded into a German reactor has had a levy of €145. The tax is expected to bring in an annual revenue of approx €2.3 billion. This law was initiated in order to tax the usage of nuclear fuel for electricity, because the argument is that nuclear fuel shouldn’t be a singular exemption from taxation for energy. The following is a table of German nuclear power units (hat tip World Nuclear Association).
| Plant | Type | MWe (net) | Commercial operation | Operator | Provisionally scheduled shut-down 2001 | 2010 agreed shut-down | March 2011 shutdown & May 2011 closure plan |
| Biblis A | PWR | 1167 | 2/1975 | RWE | 2008 | 2016 | shutdown |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Neckarwestheim 1 | PWR | 785 | 12/1976 | EnBW | 2009 | 2017 | shutdown |
| Brunsbüttel | BWR | 771 | 2/1977 | Vattenfall | 2009 | 2018 | shutdown |
| Biblis B | PWR | 1240 | 1/1977 | RWE | 2011 | 2018 | shutdown |
| Isar 1 | BWR | 878 | 3/1979 | E.ON | 2011 | 2019 | shutdown |
| Unterweser | PWR | 1345 | 9/1979 | E.ON | 2012 | 2020 | shutdown |
| Phillipsburg 1 | BWR | 890 | 3/1980 | EnBW | 2012 | 2026 | shutdown |
| Krümmel | BWR | 1260 | 3/1984 | Vattenfall | 2016 | 2030 | shutdown |
| Total shut down (8) | 8336 | ||||||
| Grafenrheinfeld | PWR | 1275 | 6/1982 | E.ON | 2014 | 2028 | May 2015 |
| Gundremmingen B | BWR | 1284 | 4/1984 | RWE | 2016 | 2030 | end 2017 |
| Gundremmingen C | BWR | 1288 | 1/1985 | RWE | 2016 | 2030 | 2021 |
| Grohnde | PWR | 1360 | 2/1985 | E.ON | 2017 | 2031 | 2021 |
| Phillipsburg 2 | PWR | 1392 | 4/1985 | EnBW | 2018 | 2032 | 2019 |
| Brokdorf | PWR | 1370 | 12/1986 | E.ON | 2019 | 2033 | 2021 |
| Isar 2 | PWR | 1400 | 4/1988 | E.ON | 2020 | 2034 | 2022 |
| Emsland | PWR | 1329 | 6/1988 | RWE | 2021 | 2035 | 2022 |
| Neckarwestheim 2 | PWR | 1305 | 4/1989 | EnBW | 2022 | 2036 | 2022 |
| Total operating (9) | 12,003 | ||||||
| Total (17) | 20,339 MWe |
NB: The eight shut-down reactors are not yet defueled, nor decommissioned and written off by their owners.
Critics of this have said that this is a setback biased towards energy groups in Germany, such as RWE and E.on, whose shares fell dramatically last week. Various companies stated that thousands of jobs were cut due to subsidized clean energy sources. As a result, they felt it would cause them to lose billions of Euros in revenue. Another argument that was given to the EU courts was that this tax was illegal according the the Union’s legalities regarding taxation and energy laws.
Last week the European Court of Justice came forth and concluded that these taxations are indeed compatible with European law, and in addition, the tax on nuclear fuel does not constitute state aid. There is still a debate going on however within the Federal Constitutional Court of Karlsruhe whether or not imposing such a tax is legal. However, such a decision is only to be made by the end of this year. It seems as though this ruling will prove to be a final one, and the taxation will remain as implemented and won’t constitute any legal consideration of any level of state aid. Thus, it seems to be unlikely that such a levy will be proven to be unlawful within the next year.
