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U.S govt in legal battle over nuclear waste

“US Justice Dept Wants More Lawyers For Nuclear-Waste Litigation” THE WALL STREET JOURNAL By Brent Kendall, (Siobhan Hughes and Ian Talley contributed to this article.) Dow Jones Newswire 2 Feb 2010 -The Obama administration wants a bigger legal team to do battle with utility companies over the federal government’s failure to collect spent nuclear waste as required by legislation from the 1980s.The president’s budget proposal, released Monday, seeks an additional $11.4 million for the Justice Department to devote to nuclear-waste litigation.

That increase would more than double the money the department has allocated for the government’s legal defense.The department said nuclear power utilities have filed 72 cases that seek in excess of $50 billion in damages for the government’s delay in accepting spent nuclear fuel.

The government was required by law to begin collecting the waste by January 1998.”Defending theses cases will involve intensive resources due to their complexity and high financial stakes,” the Justice Department said in a written summary of its budget proposal. “Without the requested additional funding, the government’s posture will be severely weakened potentially leading to massive Treasury losses.”The department said as many as 25 cases could go to trial in the 2011 fiscal year…………

The Obama administration has said that storing spent fuel at Yucca Mountain is no longer under consideration. On Monday, the White House proposed cutting all funds for the Yucca Mountain project and said it will withdraw an application with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for a nuclear-waste repository at the Nevada site.

CORRECT: DOJ Wants More Lawyers For Nuclear-Waste Litigation – WSJ.com

February 2, 2010 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Legal, USA | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear secrecy, nuclear wastes, radioactive, reactor