POWER May 2010 - 20

Nuclear Power
1. Gone but not forgotten. View of
the above-ground support structures and
north and south portals at the now-defunct
Yucca Mountain repository. Source: Department
of Energy/Office of Civilian Radioactive
Waste Management (DOE/OCRWM)
billions of dollars from ratepayers to pay for
the project (Figure 1).
Ratepayers Pay to (Not) Play
The nuclear industry is unique among energy
producers in its contractual commitment to
cover the full costs for managing its waste. The
Nuclear Waste Policy Act (NWPA) of 1982 directed
utilities to levy fees on electricity generated
by nuclear power and to pay those fees
into a federal Nuclear Waste Fund (NWF) that
was to be used to develop and operate a national
repository. In return for the payment of fees, the
NWPA directed the federal government to accept
ownership and begin disposing of the SNF
and other high-level waste (HLW) no later than
January 31, 1998. Those fees included the cost
of transporting SNF to the repository.
Since 1983, consumers of electricity from
nuclear power plants have paid approximately
$32 billion into the NWF. Consumers in
Alabama and Georgia, for example, have sent
more than $1 billion to the NWF and continue
to contribute over $44 million a year.
The current balance in the NWF exceeds approximately
$22 billion, and consumers nationwide
are contributing about an additional
$750 million a year. The difference between
total collections and the current balance is
roughly equal to the approximately $9 billion
already spent on preparing the Yucca Mountain
site to date.
The key unanswered question: Is the federal
government responsible to reimburse
ratepayers for the cancellation of Yucca
Mountain? The U.S. Senate Committee on
Environmental and Public Works weighed in
on this issue in 2008 and prepared an estimate
of the potentially huge long-term liabilities.
The committee estimated additional liabilities
of $7 billion by 2017 and $11 billion by
2020 should Yucca Mountain be cancelled.
The committee's estimates seem to be in the
ballpark, given the torrent of federal lawsuits
that have been filed by utilities. First up was the
suit filed by Energy Northwest in 2006. The
U.S. Court of Federal Claims ruled on March
5, 2010, that the DOE owes Energy Northwest
nearly $57 million in damages for breach of
contract involving the former repository. The
amount awarded offsets costs incurred by Energy
Northwest to construct a used fuel storage
area at its Columbia Generating Station
Unit 2, located in Hanford, Washington (see
this issue's cover photo). The court found the
breach of contract was the failure of the DOE
to begin accepting SNF from nuclear power
plants in 1998 when Yucca Mountain was to
be in operation per the DOE's " Standard Contract "
with nuclear power plants.
The Energy Northwest suit is the first of
more than 60 similar suits filed by nuclear
utilities. If each nuclear plant in the U.S. received
the same award as Energy Northwest
did for Columbia, then almost $6 billion
would be owed to those utilities to cover future
costs of storage and processing.
Build a better
Power Plant
Squirter DTIs
the best way to bolt!
®
booth #1131
booth #10147.
TRAINING * FIELD SUPPORT * TECHNICAL EXPERTISE
email: info@appliedbolting.com
20
http://www.appliedbolting.com
circle 14 on reader service card
www.powermag.com
1 800 552 1999 1 802 460 3100
POWER | May 2010
http://www.appliedbolting.com http://www.powermag.com
POWER May 2010

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of POWER May 2010
