Management and Disposal of High-Level Nuclear Waste
More about the money....
In the NWPA, the federal government was required to take custody of commercial
nuclear waste in 1998. Due to failure to meet this deadline, the industry sued and the
DOE has been paying for on-site storage costs at reactor sites. According to FY'16
figures, the DOE paid $6.1 billion in damages and has projected future liabilities of
$24.7 billion.
Congress has a history of withholding funding for the program, even when authorized
under the Act, due to the failure to resolve controversies. For example, Congress has
not approved the funding requested in the 2017 and 2018 budgets for the DOE to
resume licensing of the Yucca Mt. disposal site and a possible MRS.
Current federal budget rules and laws make it impossible for the
nuclear waste program to have assured access to the fees being
collected from nuclear utilities to finance the commercial share of of
the waste program's expenses.
Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future, 2012,
Report to the Secretary of Energy
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