Greenpeace Calculation Regarding Costs of Nuclear Power is Completely Untrustworthy

Berlin, 03.09.2009


The German Atomic Forum rejects the study on the costs of nuclear power presented by the environmental protection organisation Greenpeace on 3 September 2009 as untenable and unscientific. The taxpayer has not had to pay a single cent in subsidies for the commercial production of electricity from nuclear energy. The Federal Government last confirmed this in 2008. Greenpeace construes the term "subisidy" hair-raisingly widely in order to arrive at a total of 258 billion euros.

The study commissioned by the environmental organisation is a conglomeration of the most varied government expenditures and obligations relating to the topic of nuclear power.

Here are some examples from it:
The expenditure for cleaning up Soviet uranium mining in Saxony and Thuringia is included with a total of 7.2 billion euros. This, however, is an old toxic waste site which was acquired as a result of unification. The government´s research expenditure for the period from 1950 to 2008 is stated as being 41.2 billion euros but also includes the high level of expenditure for fusion research yet fails to quote figures.

The German system of reserves set aside for nuclear energy, which is included in the Greenpeace study, was acknowledged years ago by the Federal Government, the EU Commission and the European Court of Justice. It has stood the test of time for decades.

Half of what Greenpeace describes as a subsidy is completely untrustworthy and should be seen merely as electioneering.