THE PHASE-OUT OF NUCLEAR POWER IN GERMANY

Over the past 20 years, political attitudes in Germany towards the nuclear industry have been characterised less by consistency than by some major policy shifts, and the same can be said for the legislation that emerged from these attitudes. Although a number of these about-turns were predictable, others were less so because of their dependence on external factors. What now looks likely to be the final1 decision to phase out the civil use of nuclear power in Germany by 31 December 20222 raises a whole host of legal questions. In particular, the procedure followed to implement this phase-out provides ample material for debates on questions of constitutionality. Further matters of jurisprudential interest include the agreements concluded with the nuclear industry before the final phase-out decision was taken and the chronologically close political about-face themselves. Finally, a degree of legal uncertainty still surrounds not only the as-yet still unresolved issue of final repositories but also the resurgent debate over the source of funding for the dismantling of nuclear power plants. After providing an overview of the initial situation and the problems arising in connection with Germany’s phasing out of the civil use of nuclear energy, this paper will place these issues in their proper legal context before evaluating them and highlighting the connection between these points of nuclear law and the current upheaval in German energy policy.