Germany's Environment Minister, Mr Jürgen Trittin, yesterday ruled out paying any compensation to nuclear reprocessing plants in Britain and France following Bonn's unilateral decision to ban the reprocessing of nuclear waste.
British Nuclear Fuels Ltd and a French company, Cogema, are demanding billions of pounds in compensation if reprocessing contracts at Sellafield and La Hague are cancelled.
Under Germany's new nuclear power law, which will be introduced in the Bundestag on January 27th, German nuclear power plants will be banned from sending spent nuclear rods abroad for reprocessing. All nuclear waste will have to be stored in secure dumps close to the power plants, and the power companies will have to pay for regular safety checks.
"This means the end of the plutonium trade," said Mr Trittin this week.
The British and French nuclear reprocessing firms are determined to fight the German move and are insisting that if Bonn cancels the multi-billion pound contracts it must take back any nuclear waste which has not yet been reprocessed. This would mean sending dozens of transporters carrying radioactive waste through Germany, a move certain to cause massive protests. Only 56 of 550 tonnes of German nuclear waste delivered to Sellafield has been reprocessed.
Germany's nuclear industry claims that few of the country's 19 nuclear reactors are in a position to create secure storage systems for waste before January 1st, 2000, when Mr Trittin insists that all reprocessing must end.
The governing coalition of Social Democrats and Greens is committed to closing Germany's nuclear power stations, and talks with the nuclear industry on a timetable for closure are due to start on January 26th. In the meantime, Mr Trittin appears determined to force the nuclear industry to pay a higher price for its activity and has dramatically increased the cost of insurance cover and the level of fines for nuclear accidents.
Representatives of the country's biggest nuclear power companies wrote to the Chancellor, Mr Gerhard Schroder, this week warning him that Mr Trittin's approach could endanger the "consensus talks" about the future of the industry.
