Jeremy L. Dillon
RW Monitor
6/27/2014
The Sacramento Municipal Utility District was awarded late last week $53.1 million by the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit from the United States government for the Department of Energy’s failure to manage its spent nuclear fuel. The decision is the latest in a long line of payouts by the U.S. for DOE’s failure to move the waste, as out outlined by the Nuclear Waste Policy Act. SMUD’s payment covers the cost the utility incurred from 1992-2003 to store the spent fuel from the Rancho Seco nuclear power plant, which ceased operations in 1989 after a community referendum voted to shut the plant down. “This is a significant and long awaited victory for SMUD,” a spokesperson from SMUD said this week. “After decades of complex litigation, the court ruled in favor of SMUD on each and every issue raised in the appeal.” SMUD has spent more than $110 million for building, operating, and maintaining an independent spent fuel storage installation, according to the opinion issued with the decision.
Under the NWPA, DOE is required to deal with the high level waste generated by commercial nuclear reactors, but due to the shuttering of the Yucca Mountain geological repository in 2010 by the Obama Administration, DOE has not been able to fulfil its obligations. Payouts in total to utilities have ballooned to approximately $2.7 billion, with litigation to continue for the foreseeable future.
