March 17, 2014

NUKE INDUSTRY COMES OUT AGAINST URANIUM D&D FUND PROPOSAL

By ExchangeMonitor

In a move likely to come as little surprise, the U.S. nuclear industry has quickly come out against the Department of Energy’s latest proposal to reauthorize payments into the federal uranium enrichment D&D fund. DOE included the proposal as part of its Fiscal Year 2014 budget, released yesterday, which envisions a federal payment of approximately $463 million and “assessments” of approximately $200 million. Soon after the request was released, though, it was met with criticism from the Nuclear Energy Institute, which described the proposal as a “tax” on electricity consumers in 33 states. “We recognize that the federal government is under significant budget pressures, but reinstating unjustified taxes … just doesn’t make a lot of sense,” NEI Senior Vice President for Governmental Affairs Alex Flint said in a release. “We will immediately begin to work with Congress to propose budget levels and programs that will better meet our energy and nonproliferation priorities.”

DOE has tried over the past several years, with little success, to reauthorize the federal uranium enrichment D&D fund, which is used to help cover cleanup costs at the Oak Ridge, Paducah and Portsmouth sites. The fund, which saw its authorization expire in 2007, was to last for 15 years, with the utilities to contribute a total of $2.5 billion and DOE to contribute a total of $4.95 billion. The annual contributions were initially set at $480 million—later raised to $518 million—with industry to contribute an annual maximum of $150 million. Utilities wrapped up paying their obligations to the fund in 2007. In late 2010, DOE submitted a report to Congress warning that the fund could run out of money sooner than expected, with the fund facing a shortfall of almost $12 billion to and set to be exhausted by 2020.

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