Germany's biggest nuclear power operator Eon is to challenge the government's decision to retain a tax on nuclear fuel, dpa quoted the company as saying Tuesday. The announcement came the day after the government said it would shut down all of the country's nuclear power plants by 2022. While Eon recognized the overwhelming political will to phase out nuclear power, "the company at the same time of course expects the necessary compensation for the losses, amounting to billions, connected with the decision," the company said. Last year Chancellor Angela Merkel's government overturned legislation passed by a previous Social Democrat (SPD)-Green government, to shut down all nuclear power stations by 2021. It announced plans instead to extend the life span of the country's nuclear plants by an average of 12 years. It also introduced the tax on nuclear fuel. But after the crisis at the Japanese Fukushima nuclear power plant earlier this year, the government backtracked, imposing a moratorium on seven of the oldest plants. Eon had already invested large amounts of money after the initial legislation to extend the life of nuclear power plants, it said Tuesday. The "double burden" would put the company at a "disproportionate disadvantage in the European market," Eon said. "The company will put down its losses in concrete figures, present them to the government and will initially look for negotiations, in order to avoid a legal dispute," Eon said. The company's chief executive, Johannes Teyssen, said at the beginning of May that the company would decide by the end of the month whether to challenge the nuclear fuel tax in court. The tax would have enriched state coffers by 2.3 billion euros (3.3 billion dollars) per year until 2016, though if the eight power plants currently shut down remain closed, that would reduce it to 1.3 billion euros. The energy company RWE said Monday it would reserve the right to challenge the legislation in court. The company has also challenged the moratorium on the power plants currently closed. Meanwhile, the parliamentary leader of the Green party, Juergen Trittin criticized the shutdown plans. "That means we're going into a situation, with our eyes open, in which network stability and security of supply are endangered," he said. Earlier Tuesday, the state of Baden-Wuerttemberg, the only state to be led by the Greens, urged the building of gas-fired power plants to replace nuclear ones, saying that gas-fired stations were "highly efficient" and produced less harmful pollution. The national leader of the Greens, Cem Oezdemir, said his party's support for the laws depended on improvements. Chancellor Angela Merkel, who has emphasized her wish to gain cross-party and state support for her government's plans, is to meet with state leaders on Friday.
