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 In a sharply worded opinion, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the
District of Columbia said the Obama administration failed to provide
a good reason why money for the federal Nuclear Waste Fund should
continue to be collected.
The appeals court called a DOE analysis of the fee collection
"absolutely useless" and compared the agency's arguments to "the old
razzle dazzle" offered by a disreputable lawyer in the musical
"Chicago."
Nuclear operators have paid more than $27 billion over the years to
help cover the costs of long-term storage and disposal of nuclear
waste from the nation's 100 commercial nuclear reactors. With
interest, the fund is approaching an estimated $30 billion.
The money has sat idle for decades amid disputes about how to
dispose of the waste. The Obama administration has moved to close a
nuclear dump planned at Nevada's Yucca Mountain.
A DOE spokeswoman said the department was reviewing the court's
opinion.
The Nuclear Energy Institute, an industry group, hailed the ruling.
"Today's decision confirms that the federal government cannot
continue to defy Congress' explicit direction to implement a viable
program to manage reactor fuel from America's nuclear power plants,"
said Ellen Ginsberg, the institute's general counsel.
The court ruling "reinforces the fundamental principle that the
federal government's obligation is to carry out the law, whether or
not the responsible agency or even the president agrees with the
underlying policy," Ginsberg said.
The ruling marked the second time in three months the D.C. Appeals
Court has rebuked the administration over a continued stalemate on
how to store and dispose of nuclear waste. The court ruled in August
that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission was "simply flouting the law"
when it allowed the Energy Department to abandon the proposed Yucca
Mountain waste site in Nevada. The action goes against a federal law
designating Yucca Mountain as the nation's nuclear waste repository.
The appeals court at the time ordered the NRC to complete the review
of Yucca Mountain and approve or reject the Energy Department's
application for the never-completed project 90 miles from Las Vegas.
The NRC said this week it has directed its staff to complete work on
a key safety report related to Yucca Mountain.
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In the opinion issued Tuesday, Senior Judge Laurence H. Silberman
said the administration was contradicting itself in arguing that
money for the Nuclear Waste Fund should continue to be collected
even as the government no longer is pursuing Yucca Mountain as a
long-term solution for nuclear waste storage.
The government "cannot have it both ways," Silberman wrote on behalf
of a three-judge panel. "It cannot renounce Yucca Mountain and then
reasonably use its costs as a proxy" for determining how much money
should be paid into the Nuclear Waste Fund.
"The government was hoist on its own petard," Silberman wrote.
A group representing state utility regulators called the ruling
great news for nuclear power consumers, who have spent billions to
support nuclear waste storage. "Unfortunately all they have to show
for their investment is a hole in the Nevada desert," said Charles
Gray, executive director of the National Association of Regulatory
Utility Commissioners.
Putting aside the political dispute about Yucca Mountain,
"nuclear-power ratepayers should not be charged for a program the
federal government has closed down," Gray said. "Thankfully, because
of today's actions, nuclear-power consumers will no longer have to
pay for the government's mishandling of this program."
[Associated
Press; MATTHEW DALY]
Follow Matthew Daly on
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