Like other member states of the European Union and other countries of the world, the Slovak Republic had to deal with the issue of securing financial resources for the back-end of the peaceful use of nuclear energy. As a result, a state purpose fund, officially called the State Fund for Decommissioning of Nuclear Power Installations and Management of Spent Nuclear Fuel and Radioactive Waste, was established in 1995. This legal entity was later transformed to the National Nuclear Fund for Decommissioning of Nuclear Installations and for Management of Spent Nuclear Fuel and Radioactive Waste, in recent times known as the National Nuclear Fund.

The National Nuclear Fund is governed by the fundamental principle for financing of the back-end of peaceful use of nuclear energy, which means that the costs related to the back-end shall be borne by the operator of a nuclear installation. The principle “polluter pays” results also from the Council Directive No. 2011/70/EURATOM establishing a Community Framework for the Responsible and Safe Management of Spent Nuclear Fuel and Radioactive Waste. They way of funding of the back-end of the nuclear power plant A1 and partly of the nuclear power plant V1 too is very specific, as they both did not (manage to) accumulate sufficient resources for the decommissioning during their operation period. Reimbursement of this revenue shortfall was passed onto all electricity users, who pay a levy intended for reimbursement of the so-called historical debt included in the electricity prices. The National Nuclear Fund secures necessary financial resources, manages, distributes and provides them in a non-discriminatory and transparent manner. Moreover, it secures reasonable appreciation of financial resources held in its accounts in the State Treasury.

The long term activities of the National Nuclear Fund as well as the activities of all organizations under the back-end of peaceful use of nuclear energy are governed by the strategic document „The National Policy and the National Programme for the Management of Spent Nuclear Fuel and Radioactive Waste in the Slovak Republic“, which was approved by the Government of the Slovak Republic.

The purposes of the Nuclear Fund are to secure financing the activities connected with the National Programme for the Management of Spent Nuclear Fuel and Radioactive Waste, accumulate and manage financial resources earmarked for the back-end of nuclear power engineering, secure financial resources from the state budget for the management of radioactive and nuclear materials of unknown origin, and manage financial guarantees for high-activity sealed radiation sources.

The administrator of the National Nuclear Fund is the Ministry of Economy of the SR.