Provisions for nuclear waste management

The vast majority of provisions for nuclear waste management are recognized as non-current provisions, and their settlement amount is discounted to the balance-sheet date. From the current perspective, the majority of utilisation is anticipated to occur in the years 2020 to 2050. As in the previous year, an interest rate of 5.0 % was used as the discount rate. Volume-based increases in the provisions are measured at their present value. In the reporting period, they amounted to €80 million (previous year: €128 million). By adding €71 million to provisions (previous year: release of €178 million), we have taken into account that waste disposal costs are expected to be higher or lower, according to current estimates. Additions to provisions for nuclear waste management primarily consist of an interest accretion of €447 million (previous year: €425 million). €737 million in prepayments, primarily to foreign reprocessing companies and to the German Federal Office for Radiation Protection (BfS) for the construction of final storage facilities, were deducted from the provisions for nuclear waste management (previous year: €684 million).

In terms of their contractual definition, provisions for nuclear waste management break down as follows:

In respect of the disposal of spent nuclear fuel assemblies, the provisions for obligations which are not yet contractually defined cover the estimated long-term costs of direct final storage of fuel assemblies, which is currently the only possible disposal method in Germany, and the costs for the disposal of radioactive waste from reprocessing. The latter essentially consist of costs for transport from centralized storage facilities and the plants’ intermediate storage facilities to reprocessing plants and final storage as well as conditioning for final storage and containers. These estimates are mainly based on studies by internal and external experts, in particular by Gesellschaft für Nuklear-Service mbH (GNS) in Essen, Germany. With regard to the decommissioning of nuclear power plants, the costs for the post-operational phase and dismantling are taken into consideration, on the basis of data from external expert opinions prepared by NIS Ingenieurgesellschaft mbH, Alzenau, Germany, which are generally accepted throughout the industry and are updated continuously. Finally, this item also covers all of the costs of final storage for all radioactive waste, based on data provided by BfS.

Provisions for contractually defined nuclear obligations are related to all nuclear obligations for the disposal of fuel assemblies and radioactive waste as well as for decommissioning, insofar as the value of said obligations is specified in contracts under civil law. They include the anticipated residual costs of reprocessing, return (transport, containers) and intermediate storage of the resulting radioactive waste, as well as the additional costs of the utilization of uranium and plutonium from reprocessing activities. These costs are based on existing contracts with foreign reprocessing companies and with GNS. Moreover, these provisions also take into account the costs for transport and intermediate storage of spent fuel assemblies within the framework of final direct storage. The power plants’ intermediate storage facilities are licensed for an operational period of 40 years and commenced operations between 2002 and 2006. Futhermore, the amounts are also stated for the conditioning and intermediate storage of radioactive operational waste, which is primarily performed by GNS.

With due consideration of the German Atomic Energy Act (AtG), in particular to Sec. 9a of AtG, the provision for nuclear waste management breaks down as follows: