E.ON Seeks Compensation for Nuclear Moratorium

German utility E.ON has filed a lawsuit seeking 380 million euros ($479 million) in damages caused by a government moratorium on nuclear production after the Fukushima disaster in 2011.

It has also filed a lawsuit against three German states seeking compensation for costly nuclear waste storage.

Under pressure from widespread protests in Germany, Berlin ordered a three-month shut down of several older reactors after a tsunami and earthquake set off nuclear meltdowns at Fukushima in Japan.

E.ON peer RWE said in August it would seek damages over the three-month moratorium, which has since became a permanent shut-down under a 2011 law.

A federal court said in January the decision to shut down RWE's Biblis nuclear plant for three months was illegal.

"The same reasons apply to E.ON as well," the Duesseldorf-based company said.

E.ON, which was forced to close its Isar 1 and Unterweser power stations, said it was suing the states of Bavaria and Lower Saxony, where the power stations are located.

The power stations have been idle since 2011 due to Germany's decision under the 2011 law to phase out nuclear power faster than scheduled.

E.ON and its peers have taken separate steps against that law in the Federal Constitutional Court but Wednesday's move was confined to the three-month stoppage in 2011.

E.ON also said it rejected a 2014 law that had banned transporting atomic waste to a central repository in Goreleben, and stipulates that atomic waste must be stored locally until three new storage sites are set up.

E.ON said on-site storage was costly, and that the state, not the company, should pay.

Gorleben has attracted massive anti-nuclear protests along the railway tracks to the site that have required expensive police protection.

"Because the alternative storage arrangements are entirely politically motivated, the costs that arise must be fully borne by the state," E.ON said.

E.ON still has nuclear operations in Lower Saxony, Bavaria and Schleswig-Holstein.

RWE also said on Wednesday it planned to file a lawsuit against the storage law.

An environment ministry spokesman in Berlin said the ministry had not received the E.ON lawsuit.

"We note with astonishment and regret that the big societal consensus about dropping nuclear energy and transitioning (to a renewables-based energy economy) has not arrived at the utility companies," the spokesman added.

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(Reporting by Tom Kaeckenhoff, Vera Eckert, Markus Wacket, editing by Jonathan Gould and Susan Thomas)