The U.S. government has paid at least $7.4 billion to nuclear power plant owners for failing to meet its Jan. 31, 1998, deadline to begin taking their spent reactor fuel for disposal, according to the Congressional Research Service (CRS).
The U.S. Energy Department projects its total liability could be as high as $35.5 billion.
The deadline was set in the 1982 Nuclear Waste Policy Act, which put DOE in charge of disposal of the nation’s used fuel and high-level radioactive waste. The federal agency and nuclear utilities then sealed “standard contracts” under which the companies paid fees to help fund permanent dispositoin of that material.
Congress amended the legislation in 1987 to mandate the waste be buried in a geologic repository under Yucca Mountain, Nev., but that facility has not been licensed or built.
In the meantime, nuclear utilities have sued the government dozens of times to recoup the costs of keeping their spent fuel in temporary storage on-site at retired and active power plants in more than 30 states. The federal government by the end of fiscal 2018 had paid $5.3 billion in settlements and $2.1 billion from final judgments in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, according to a Sept. 16 update to the CRS report on civilian nuclear waste disposal.
The money comes from the U.S. Treasury Department’s Judgment Fund. The total amount of the payouts has likely increased since the end of fiscal 2018 on Sept. 30 of last year – just in June, a Federal Claims Court judge ordered the government to pay more than $143 million to Southern Co. subsidiaries Georgia Power Co. and Alabama Power Co.
The government had settled 40 lawsuits by the close of fiscal 2018, the Congressional Research Service said. Final judgments had been issued in 49 cases.
“Utilities that have not settled with the Department of Justice have continued seeking damage compensation through the U.S. Court of Federal Claims,” the CRS report says. “Unlike the settlements, which cover all past and future damages resulting from DOE’s nuclear waste delays, awards by the Court of Claims can cover only damages that have already been incurred; therefore, utilities must continue filing claims as they accrue additional delay-related costs.”
In making the case for Yucca Mountain, members of Congress have noted regularly that the federal government’s liability to nuclear power companies is effectively $2 million per day.
The Energy Department under President George W. Bush in 2008 filed its construction and operations license application for the Yucca Mountain repository with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. But the Obama administration defunded that proceeding two years later, eventually embarking on a “consent-based” approach for siting disposal facilities as recommended by a blue-ribbon commission of experts. Upon taking office in January 2017, President Donald Trump turned back toward Yucca Mountain. But he has to date failed to persuade Congress to appropriate money to resume licensing.
For the upcoming fiscal 2020, DOE and the NRC have together requested about $150 million for licensing activities. Appropriators in both chambers of Congress zeroed out those requests, instead recommending funding focused on advancing interim storage of used fuel. The House in June approved spending legislation covering the two agencies, while the Senate version is still waiting on a floor vote. In the meantime, Congress has readied a continuing resolution that would keep the government operating at current funding levels through Nov. 21.
The Department of Energy collected fees from nuclear power companies for the Nuclear Waste Fund until May 2014, following a federal appeals court ruling in 2013 that collections stop.
The federal government disbursed nearly $7.5 billion from the fund before the Obama administration suspended the Yucca Mountain project, the CRS report says. The fund balance was $38.8 billion at the close of fiscal 2018, aided by interest revenue. In its most recent projection, from 2008, the Energy Department estimated the repository program would cost $96.2 billion from 1983 to closure in 2133.
