This book analyses the German constitutional system's responses towards nuclear energy. Robert Rybski begins with a presentation of energy security as a constitutional value and explores how it connects with nuclear energy. He also examines constitutional standards derived from the German Constitution, which directly regulates nuclear energy issues within the German system of power. The book presents the structure of sources of law that are binding in the area of security of nuclear installations and considers the impact that The European Atomic Energy Community had on the German constitutional system. The final part of the book is devoted to a novel judicial concept of the so-called Restrisiko – a risk that cannot be avoided – which has been developed in the jurisprudence of the Federal Constitutional Court. The essence of this concept is an assumption that as long as the legal framework regulating nuclear energy fulfils conditions formulated in that judgment, then each citizen has to accept risks resulting from the nuclear energy sector. Covering the entire period of commercial usage of nuclear energy for power generation, this book will be of great interest to students, scholars and energy experts who are active in researching or adopting public policies related to the nuclear energy sector.

Energy Capitol explores the waning of regulatory politics surrounding large-scale energy systems in the United States at the turn of the millennium. Throughout the twentieth century, large-scale energy systems in North America and Europe were highly regulated by a national political community whose decision-making authority relied on positions of bureaucratic and capitalist-led industry organization. After restructuring in energy markets such as natural gas and electricity during the 1980s, the culture of power surrounding political decision-making began to decline. Against this backdrop, Arthur Mason examines the struggle by oil companies and federal-state agencies to deliver natural gas from Alaska and Canada’s Mackenzie Valley to markets in midcontinental United States, highlighting regulatory collusion to advance their plans. Mason employs perspectives from anthropology, political science, sociology, and science and technology studies to analyze ethnographic data gathered at the Alaska State Legislature and in the Office of the Alaska Governor in Washington, D.C. The focus is primarily on plans for building an estimated $20 billion 3,500 mile pipeline to transport natural gas from the North American Arctic to midcontinental pipeline infrastructure in the United States. By illuminating key aspects of federal-state political decision-making processes on energy transportation infrastructure, Mason highlights the activities of economists, lawyers, and other regulatory intellectuals whose accumulated work impedes Arctic proposals through a reliance on judgments that no longer reflect the conditions in which large-scale projects are increasingly determined. Written by a leading expert in the field, this book will be of great interest to students and scholars of energy policy, environmental politics, governance, and regulation and risk. It will also be relevant to industry professionals working in environmental NGOs and government departments in energy and climate forecasting.

According to the German government’s new energy concept that was recently introduced, renewable energies shall replace fossil and nuclear energy sources step-by-step. The offshore wind energy sector plays a key role in this new energy strategy, and shall contribute the major share of renewable energy to the future German energy mix. The purpose of this study is to examine and evaluate the applicable conditions that have to be considered by project developers and investors when realising an offshore wind park project in Germany. Firstly, it analyses the political environment for the offshore wind energy sector in Germany. Secondly, it gives an overview of the most relevant German legal statutes determining, inter alia, the establishment of wind energy priority areas, the applicable German feed-in tariff scheme, and the necessary approval process for offshore wind parks to be erected in the German exclusive economic zone. Thirdly, those potential bankability issues and financing challenges are discussed that an offshore wind park project planner might be exposed to when trying to secure a debt financing for such a sophisticated and capital-intensive project.

This book presents the universal issue of radioactive waste management from the perspective of the German legal system, analysing how lawmakers have responded to the problem of nuclear waste over the course of the last seventy years. In this book, Robert Rybski unwraps and explains the perplexing legal and social issues related to radioactive waste. He takes readers through the entire ‘life-cycle’: from the moment that radioactive material is classified as radioactive waste, through to the period of interim storage, and right up to its final disposal. However, this last step in radioactive waste management (that of final disposal) has not yet been achieved in Germany, or anywhere in the world, and has been the subject of hefty public debate for dozens of years. As a result, the book analyses the most recent regulations in place to enable final disposal. This book will be of interest to energy policy experts, academics and professionals who work in the area of nuclear energy.

Kommers's comprehensive work surveys the development of German constitutional doctrine between 1949, when the Federal Constitutional Court was founded, and 1996. Extensively revised and expanded to take into account recent developments since German unification, this second edition describes the background, structure, and functions of the Court and provides extensive commentary on German constitutional interpretation, and includes translations of seventy-eight landmark decisions. These cases include the highly controversial religious liberty and free speech cases handed down in 1995.

Germany Nuclear Energy Sector Policy, Laws and Regulations Handbook - Strategic Information, Projects, Regulations