The Nuclear Energy Institute and several utilities have asked a federal court for authorization to intervene on behalf of the targets of the state of Texas’ lawsuit over federal management of nuclear waste.
The state last month sued Energy Secretary (and former Texas governor) Rick Perry, Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Kristine Svinicki, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, and their respective agencies, seeking 24 items of redress. Notably, the Texas Attorney General’s Office asked the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals to order the agencies to resume licensing of the canceled Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository and to halt consent-based siting of nuclear waste, the Obama administration’s replacement for the Nevada project.
NEI and the utilities, in a motion to intervene filed April 5, expressed no opposition to Texas’ intention to advance a permanent solution for storage of U.S. spent nuclear fuel. But they took exception to two requests in the lawsuit: “an order providing Petitioner with restitution from the Nuclear Waste Fund” and “an order disgorging the Nuclear Waste Fund.”
“NEI seeks to intervene on behalf of its members, and the Nuclear Utilities seek to intervene on their own, because granting the restitution and disgorgement remedies sought by the petitioner would deplete the Nuclear Waste Fund, contrary to the plain language and purposes of the [1982 Nuclear Waste Policy] Act, causing direct harm to NEI, NEI’s members, and the Nuclear Utilities,” according to the motion to intervene.
Under the Nuclear Waste Policy Act, nuclear utilities paid more than $30 billion into the fund, which is to be used to pay for construction of a final repository for U.S. nuclear waste. Including investment income and interest, the fund is worth up to $42.7 billion, of which Texas ratepayers contributed $815 million that has earned $709 million in interest, the state said in its lawsuit.
It was not immediately clear when the court might rule on the motion to intervene, which would allow NEI and the utilities to file legal briefs in support of the federal agencies. The utilities that filed with the industry group are: Energy Northwest, Kansas Gas and Electric, Kansas City Power and Light, Kansas Electric Power Cooperative, Wolf Creek Nuclear Operating Corp., Union Electric Co., and the Tennessee Valley Authority.
