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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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