Monday, March 29, 2010
A 30-year failure to develop a permanent site for storing nuclear waste has cost the federal government billions of dollars in fines paid to power companies. After putting all of its hopes in the Yucca Mountain repository, Washington now is starting over with finding a location following the Obama administration’s rejection of the Nevada underground site.
In the meantime, the Department of Energy is not living up to its legal obligation to take nuclear waste off the hands of utilities that have been forced to temporarily store spent fuel rods and other radioactive material. As of 2008, the government had already paid $565 million in damages stemming from industry lawsuits, with nearly $800 million more pending on appeal.
And to make matters even worse, the Bush administration promised that the government would take the waste from 21 reactors that haven’t been built yet, bringing the total anticipated amount stored waste to the size of two Yucca Mountain repositories.
“It was rash for the Bush Administration to sign contracts for new reactors while taxpayers are on the hook for billions due to default on existing waste contracts,” Arjun Makhijani, president of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research, told the media. “These new contracts are likely to add billions more in damages at a time when the federal government is struggling with deficit containment.”
-Noel Brinkerhoff
Nuclear Waste Piles Up, and It's Costing Taxpayers Billions (by Mark Clayton, Christian Science Monitor)
The Nuclear Waste Problem: Where to Put It? (by Mark Clayton, Christian Science Monitor)
Experts: U.S. Has Agreed to Store Enough Nuclear Reactor Waste to Fill Two Yucca Mountains…or Face Billions of Dollars in New Penalties (Institute for Energy and Environmental Research) (pdf)
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