The German Federal Constitutional Court has upheld the 2014 ruling of the Financial court of Hamburg and ruled that the nuclear fuel tax introduced in 2011 is unconstitutional, paving the way for a refund of €6,285m (payments from nuclear plant operators over the 2011-2016 period).
The tax on nuclear fuel (€145/g of nuclear fuel to be paid each time nuclear plant operators exchange a fuel rod, i.e. about twice a year) was introduced in 2011 and maintained despite the nuclear shut down enacted in March 2011 in the wake of the Fukushima disaster. E.ON should be refunded around €2.85bn, plus €450m in interest. RWE and EnBW, which paid €1.7bn and €1.44bn, respectively, should also be refunded.
This is the second win for German nuclear plant operators, after a Constitutional Court ruling of December 2016 considering that companies were entitled to "appropriate compensation" for the definitive shut down of the eight nuclear reactors closed after Fukushima and the anticipated closure of the nine other reactors by 2022. Companies claimed for €18.4bn from the State and Länder but the court has until mid-2018 to set the exact amounts.
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