FEDERAL COURT AWARDS MONEY FOR SPENT FUEL STORAGE

A federal court awarded three nuclear power plants last week more than $225 million from the Department of Energy for costs related to the storage of spent fuel. The U.S. Court of Federal Claims cited a breach of contract between the utilities, Maine Yankee, Connecticut Yankee, and Yankee Atomic, and DOE as justification for the reimbursement of costs accrued by the facilities to deal with the spent fuel themselves. Under the Nuclear Waste Policy Act, DOE is responsible for moving spent fuel to a repository for storage, but it has failed to do so, while the facilities—all of which have shutdown and been decommissioned– paid to store the waste. This suit dealt with costs accrued from 2002 to 2008, but the utilities plan on filing for damages from 2009 to 2012 soon. DOE has 60 days to appeal the courts decision.