Jeremy L. Dillon
RW Monitor
5/16/2014
The Nuclear Waste Fund fee was reduced to zero May 16 as the Department of Energy complied with a federal court’s ruling from late last year that said the fee should be eliminated until a time when DOE either makes progress on the now-shuttered Yucca Mountain waste repository or Congress enacts other legislation for the disposal of the nation’s high-level waste. “The Department has since determined that May 16, 2014 is the correct effective date for this change of fee,” a DOE memorandum says. “Accordingly, the current 1.0 mill/kWh fee remains in effect for electricity generated and sold until May 16, 2014.” The NWF fee had collected about $750 million dollars a year, and has approximately $34 billion that currently sits in a fund dedicated to the disposal of the nation’s high-level radioactive waste.
NARUC, NEI Celebrate
The National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners, along with the Nuclear Energy Institute, petitioned the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals to reduce the fee due to the lack of planned disposal options. The fee amounted to one-tenth of a cent per kilowatt hour of energy generated by nuclear power, and was mandated under the Nuclear Waste Policy Act to pay for the ultimate disposal of spent fuel in a repository, designated as Yucca Mountain. But since the Yucca Mountain project has been shuttered since 2010, NARUC and NEI argued that the fees should be suspended as well. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, at the prompting of the court, sent a request to Congress back in early January to seek a fee adjustment. Congress then had 90 days to accept the request, but since no action was taken by Congress, the fee changed to the requested level.
The zeroing out of the fee was met with praise from NARUC and NEI. “This is a big day and an even bigger win for consumers,” said NARUC President Colette Honorable. “While we hope Congress and the federal government can jumpstart our nation’s stalled nuclear-waste program, this action means consumers will get a break. That’s what this is all about.” NEI President and CEO Marvin Fertel urged action from Congress. “We urge policymakers to establish a new organization empowered with authority and funding to implement an effective and efficient nuclear waste management and disposal program,” Fertel said in a statement. “Such a program requires that the new management entity be given access to revenues from future Nuclear Waste Fund fees and the $34 billion fund balance. The industry also believes a consolidated storage facility should be pursued while progress is made toward either licensing the Yucca Mountain repository or siting a new disposal facility.”
