Engie plays it hard: the company does not want to pay an additional 3.3 billion euros to decommission nuclear power plants and demands itself a refund of 1.3 billion euros from the government | Economie

Angie threatens legal action. The discussion focuses on the triennial assessment of nuclear provisions. This is the piggy bank that in the future must pay for the closure and dismantling of the Belgian nuclear power plants, and for the disposal of radioactive waste. It is managed by Synatom and contains about 14.5 billion euros.

The Nuclear Arrangements Commission now says that this bank should be expanded, by 3.3 billion euros. The Committee notes, among other things, the low interest rates and the high costs, among other things, of storing nuclear waste.

But Angie calls this amount “disproportionate”. In their proposal, they suggested an increase of 900 million. The power company refers to a European standard. It seems that our country already has the highest commissions in Europe.

The company will now submit a modified bid. After that, it will be considered whether to go to the Marktenhof or not. This is a special chamber of the Brussels Court of Appeal. This is the first time that Angie disagrees with the triennial assessment by CNV.

Engie not only disagrees with the increase in nuclear provisions, but the company is also demanding a refund of 1.3 billion euros from the government because it “regulates the disposal of nuclear waste too slowly”. Normally, this should have been evident already in 2015. This storage facility has been scientifically researched for years. Not until the end of November was the first Royal Decree (RD) published, stating that nuclear waste could be disposed of in the depths.

The company argues that the decision-making process is too slow, so Angie has to incur additional costs. After all, it itself must temporarily store nuclear waste. Engie currently estimates these additional costs at €1.3 billion. It is now looking for available legal remedies to recover this amount.

The discussion comes amid talks between Engie and the federal government to extend the Doel 4 and Tihange 3 nuclear reactors.

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