Public may share costs of Germany's nuclear afterlife

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Germany's biggest utilities have set aside tens of billions of euros to fund the country's exit from nuclear power from 2022, when the last reactor leaves the grid and the clear-up begins.

But as an energy crisis puts the value of the assets underpinning those provisions at risk, concerns are growing that taxpayers may end up footing part of the bill, undermining an ambitious shift to renewable power on which Chancellor Angela Merkel has staked a hefty chunk of political capital.