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 date was set in the 1982 Nuclear Waste Policy Act, which put the Department of Energy in charge of disposal of the nation’s used fuel and high-level radioactive waste. The federal agency and nuclear utilities agreed to “standard contracts” under which the companies paid fees to help fund disposal 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 to recoup the costs of keeping their spent fuel on-site at retired and active power plants around the nation. 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 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.
The Energy Department projects its total liability could be as high as $35.5 billion.
