Transfer of financial obligations for the disposal of nuclear waste and decommissioning of German NPP's. Legal aspects of a trust model

The nuclear power plant operators have to bear the costs associated with the closure and the decommissioning of the German nuclear power plants as well as the costs for the disposal of nuclear waste. For that purpose, the operators have to build up sufficient reserves for the decommissioning phase. These reserves at the end of 2013 amounted to approximately 36 billion Euro. Changing this system is discussed very so often. Last in May 2014, a public debate started dealing with the so called trust model (''Stiftungsmodell''). The press published deliberations of several operators to transfer their entire nuclear business to the Federal Republic of Germany. Under this deliberation the current nuclear power plant operations, as well as closure obligations would be contributed to trust. Further, also the reserves should be ''transferred'' to the trust. RAG-Foundation (RAG-Stiftung) - which will assume the financial obligations in connection with Germany's closure of underground coal mining activities - sometimes is cited as a role model. The article covers elements of German trust law and atomic energy law regarding such deliberations. In trust law e.g. it can be debated whether the trust should be established under public or - as in the case of RAG-Foundation - under private law. In this context we will set out the major differences between those two options. In the public law part we will notably address issues arising from individual licensing requirements for nuclear power plants and focus on questions concerning reliability, requisite qualification and organizational structures.