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German Utilities, Government Near Accord on Nuclear Shut-Down
German Utilities, Government Near Accord on Nuclear Shut-Down
Berlin, April 7 (Bloomberg) -- RWE AG said it and other German
utilities came ``significantly closer'' to reaching an agreement with
the government on a timetable for shutting down the country's 19
nuclear power plants at a meeting this week.
A team put together to hammer out a pact met for another round of
negotiations, and a report should be presented in the coming weeks,
RWE said. The team will gather again on Sunday to continue talks, the
government said.
``Whether this will lead to final agreements, we can't yet say,''
said government spokesman Uwe-Karsten Heye. ``I expect that we could
find a solution by the end of May.''
Negotiations between the government and utilities on phasing out
nuclear power in Germany have dragged on for more than a year, as the
two parties haggle over the remaining operating life of reactors and
the disposal of nuclear waste.
Utilities have been adamant in their calls for an operating life of
35 years, the only ``economically feasible'' proposal, they say.
Germany's ruling coalition of Social Democrats and environmentalist
Greens have demanded a 30-year limit and have threatened to pass a
law forcing plants to close down.
Concern about the outcome of talks has hurt the share performance of
German utilities, analysts say. RWE, Germany's second-largest
utility, has fallen 4.1 percent this year, compared with a 6.7
percent increase on Germany's benchmark DAX index of 30 major
companies. Veba AG has gained 4 percent.
A meeting between German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and the chief
executives of Germany's four largest utilities, RWE AG, Veba AG, Viag
AG and EnBW AG is planned, though a date has yet to be set, RWE said.
Daily newspaper Berliner Zeitung said Schroeder and executives could
seal an agreement as early as next week.
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