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Costs of US nuclear wastes going up by billions

DOE’s Non-Performance on Nuclear Fuel Storage Costs Billions REUTERS  By Ecopolitology – Matter Network

By Kimberly R. Reome and Krista M. Haley 17 Nov 09

As the U.S. electric industry is contemplating building new nuclear power plants for the first time in decades, the industry continues to be faced with uncertainty regarding the ultimate long-term disposal solution for the nation’s spent nuclear fuel (SNF).

Since 1982, when Congress passed the Nuclear Waste Policy Act, nuclear power plant owners and operators have been funding the development and construction of a national SNF storage facility that may never materialize-that funding amounting to $30 billion to date.

Under the terms of the 1982 legislation, nuclear utilities entered into mandatory contracts with the Department of Energy (DOE) under which the utilities pay the federal government one mill (one tenth of a cent) for every kilowatt hour of nuclear-generated electricity sold to their customers. In return, the government assumed responsibility for the development, construction, and maintenance of a facility that would be ready to accept the nation’s SNF beginning no later than January 31, 1998.

More than a quarter century after those contracts were signed, and more than a decade after the 1998 deadline has passed, nuclear utilities have provided the DOE over $30 billion – and counting – in fees and interest……………

To date, not one spent fuel assembly has been transferred to the DOE control for permanent disposal under the contracts. And the additional costs that nuclear utilities must bear to store SNF on their own plant sites are mounting for plant owners and ratepayers, who all still await the DOE to begin accepting the utilities’ SNF.

With the SNF contracts in place, nuclear utilities did not anticipate having to add storage capacity for SNF generated after 1998. Instead, they are collectively incurring, and will continue to incur, billions of dollars in added costs related to the installation and expansion of highly-technical, on-site storage technologies-primarily dry fuel storage facilities and casks that house the highly-radioactive waste.

Now, these added costs are the central focus of a legal battle that has been officially underway since the DOE first missed the 1998 deadline.

DOE’s Non-Performance on Nuclear Fuel Storage Costs Billions | Green Business | Reuters

November 18, 2009 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | 1, USA, wastes | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear spin, nuclear wastes, radiation, radioactive, wastes