On Friday an appeals court ordered the Department of Energy to justify a fee levied to fund a repository for nuclear waste in light of a decision to end work on the Yucca Mountain project in Nevada.
The DOE must reassess the fee within six months. While the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia did not make the agency suspend the fee, it noted it could do so.
"Based on its finding that DOE has a 'disposition to delay,' the court appropriately ordered the energy secretary to reassess the fee within six months. The industry is pleased that the court retained jurisdiction over this matter, and further, ruled that it has authority to direct the secretary of energy to suspend collection of the fee," Ellen Ginsberg, general counsel of the Nuclear Energy Institute industry group, said in a release.
Utilities sued DOE after funding for Yucca Mountain was suspended in 2010. The agency collects about $750 million annually – amounting to $30 billion since 1982 – for the Nuclear Waste Fund to dispose of spent fuel from commercial nuclear power plants. Although the Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future recently outlined broad recommendation for future waste disposal – including a focus on parts of the country that would welcome development of a repository – its suggestions have not been made law. Without Yucca Mountain or another repository in the works, the industry challenged the department’s authority to guess at how much money needs to be collected for a yet-unnamed project.
“The court highlighted DOE's failure to provide an accurate estimate of the ultimate cost of the program, saying the government's calculation 'appears to be off by $30 billion.' The agency must provide clear justification to continue to collect the Nuclear Waste Fund fee at the present level,” Ginsberg said.