A federal court last week awarded the Dairyland Power Cooperative a $73.5 million settlement for the government’s breach of contract concerning nuclear waste retrieval at the La Crosse Boiling Water Reactor power plant in Genoa, Wis.
About 74,000 metric tons of spent fuel is now stored at American nuclear sites, resulting from the Energy Department’s failure to take title to the waste by 1998, as dictated by the 1982 Nuclear Waste Policy Act. The government has paid more than $5.3 billion in damages to companies holding the waste, and DOE estimates the remaining liabilities at $23.7 billion.
Last week’s settlement, in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, concerns expenses Dairyland incurred between 2007 and 2012 for the facility’s independent spent fuel storage installation (ISFSI) dry cask storage and the transfer of fuel to the casks.
The settlement is the second round of litigation between the federal government and Dairyland, bringing the company’s total awarded damages to more than $111 million. Spokeswoman Deb Mirasola said by email Monday that Dairyland plans to seek reimbursement for further operation of the ISFSI. Mirasola did not say when that might occur.
The facility closed in 1987 and has been in SAFSTOR status since 1991, aside from a period of active decommissioning from 2012 to 2014. Dairyland in June transferred the reactor license to LaCrosseSolutions, a subsidiary of waste management specialist EnergySolutions, to complete decommissioning, which is expected in 2018. A cost estimate from March 2013 put the price tag for full decommissioning at $90.7 million in 2013 dollars.
Dairyland will remain the owner of the site and retain title to and responsibility for the spent nuclear fuel, which has been completely moved into five dry-storage casks on the ISFSI.
