CONSENT BASED SITING WOULD CURB STEEP LIABILITIES FOR U.S. GOVERNMENT
As reported last week, NorthStar Vermont Yankee, LLC won a breach of contract claim
against the United States in the U.S. Court of Claims for what could be a value of more than $200 million. The court ruled in favor of Vermont Yankee as to several categories of disputed costs; including wet pool storage costs, dry cask storage costs, and decommissioning costs in excess of what would have otherwise been incurred. The judgement is not without precedent. Payments pursuant to Department of Energy (DOE) settlements and judgments in litigation amounted to approximately $10.6 billion as of September 30, 2023. This steep price tag highlights the importance of consent-based siting for a federal geologic repository. Following the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 (NWPA), DOE entered into contracts to legally acquire civilian spent nuclear fuel (SNF) and to begin disposing of civilian SNF no later than January 31, 1998 – implied, by the NWPA, to be at a federal geologic repository or a federal monitored retrievable storage (MRS). Amendments to the NWPA in 1987 stipulated that the only permissible site for a permanent repository is Yucca Mountain, NV. The same amendments required DOE to obtain an Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) license before beginning construction of any permanent repository or MRS. The difficulty of, and challenges to acquiring this license however,
meant that by January 31, 1998, neither a permanent repository nor an MRS facility existed. Congress has not appropriated funding for activities relating to a Yucca Mountain repository since FY2010, and NRC has issued no license. DOE lacked, and still lacks the authority to construct either a permanent repository or an MRS. The Yucca Mountain repository has not been built; therefore, DOE has been unable to comply with its obligations under the contracts it agreed to. This represents a partial breach of the contracts and has resulted in substantial litigation with DOE. Plant operators seek to recover storage costs they would not have incurred had DOE been able to license Yucca Mountain and acquire SNF by January 31, 1998. NorthStar’s claim is based on the same argument. DOE breached a contractual obligation to accept and dispose of spent nuclear fuel (SNF) from the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power
Station between 2014 and 2018. At this time, Vermont Yankee permanently shut down its operations and loaded all remaining SNF into on-site dry storage. All over the United States, SNF from civilian nuclear reactors continues to be stored primarily on site at each plant that generated the waste, some of which, like Vermont Yankee, are no longer in operation. Contract holders will continue to provide annual claims
for added costs under the settlement agreements they have reached with DOE, and annual payments following those agreements will continue as well. These claims are the price tag of storing SNF on site at civilian nuclear reactors - a cost of $10.6
billion. Engaging in consent-based siting for a geologic repository, MRS or consolidated interim storage facility (CISF) would help to curb the U.S. government’s liabilities. To learn more about the history of licensing decisions for CISFs, review this CRS report. To learn more about siting a CISF, see ECA’s Consent-Based Siting Website. ECA will continue to provide updates on consent based siting of a CISF, MRS, or federal geologic repository, as they develop.
ECA SURVEY EXTENSION HOW WILL YOUR SITE/COMMUNITY BE AFFECTED BY THE REPRIORITIZATION OF WASTE SHIPMENTS AT WIPP?
In order to get as much of your input as possible into the prioritization of the source of TRU waste that is being disposed at WIPP from DOE generator sites, ECA has decided to extend the deadline of the survey until September 18. We would appreciate if you could complete the survey at your earliest convenience and share the survey with members of your community. WIPP (DOE EM), as a requirement under DOE’s state permit, is developing a new “Waste Isolation Pilot (“WIPP”) Legacy TRU Waste Disposal Plan” (the “Plan”). Your input will help ECA and other organizations identify and advise the prioritization of the source of the TRU waste that is being disposed at WIPP from DOE generator sites. Please reach out to us if you have any questions about the survey, or if you have any thoughts on who else we can send the survey to. Your input and support are important to making this survey an informative tool for WIPP,
and it is greatly appreciated. ECA is asking for feedback from the citizens, local, state and Tribal governments and others on the issues. ECA will post the results of the survey on our web page after the survey results are recorded. Please provide your input before the survey closes on September
18.
For more on the survey, or if you have any questions, please contact Andres Ridge at ajr@energyca.org
September 16-18, 2024| Crystal Gateway Marriott | Arlington, VA Join us for the 10th Annual National Cleanup Workshop!
Hear from senior DOE leaders, local government officials, and industry leaders about DOE's cleanup priorities, the future of the workforce, and more.
Featured Speakers: - The Honorable Jennifer M. Granholm, Secretary of U.S. Department of Energy
- Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (TN-03), Chairman, House Appropriations Energy and Water Development
Subcommittee
- Candice Robertson, Senior Advisor, DOE-EM
- Jeff Avery, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary, DOE-EM
- Greg Sosson, Associate Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Field Operations, DOE-EM
- Kristen Ellis, Associate Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Regulatory and Policy Affairs, DOE-EM
- Dae Chung, Associate Principal Deputy
Assistant Secretary for Corporate Services, DOE-EM
- James McConnell, Associate Principal Deputy Administrator, National Nuclear Security Administration
- Brent Gerry, Mayor, City of West Richland, WA; Chair, ECA and
- Rebecca Casper, Mayor, City of Idaho Falls, Idaho, and Vice-Chair, ECA.
Hosted by ECA with the cooperation of the Energy Facility Contractors Group and DOE-EM, the workshop brings together more than 800 senior DOE executives, officials from DOE sites, industry leaders,
local elected officials, contractors and community stakeholders to discuss EM’s progress to address the environmental legacy of the Manhattan Project and Cold War-era U.S. nuclear weapons program.
Department of Energy—Obligation of Appropriations for Indirect Costs of a Management and Operating Contract GAO | August 15 The National Nuclear Security Administration, a separately organized agency within the Department of Energy (DOE), has a management and operating contract with Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC (LLNS) through which LLNS manages the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (Livermore) in support of
DOE’s statutory missions. The amount that DOE obligates for this contract includes both the direct and indirect costs of the contract. At issue here are the indirect costs of the contract, which LLNS used, in part, to renovate and construct laboratory space at Livermore Warehouse Building 490, in support of DOE and Department of Defense (DOD) programs. Read the full report here.
Gone Fission Nuclear Report: Consent-Based Siting for Spent Nuclear Fuel: A National Conversation July 29, 2024 | S4 E14 The Gone Fission Nuclear Report travels to the nation’s capital this week to join a national conversation on next steps for identifying a community to host interim spent fuel storage from America’s nuclear power plants. Our podcast sponsor, the Energy Communities Alliance, convened a meeting of elected officials, community leaders, economic
developers and Department of Energy officials to discuss what kind of incentives a community will need--and what kind of economic benefits can accrue--from volunteering to host an interim storage facility. This is an important topic as the U.S. finds itself on the brink of a nuclear renaissance that will increase the role of nuclear energy in meeting our national energy needs. Is your community interested in exploring safe spent fuel storage as an economic driver?
WEBINAR: Join DOE for a Discussion on Expanding the National Conversation on Spent Nuclear Fuel August 29, 2024 | 1:30 PM – 3:00 PM ET Register now! Coal-To-Nuclear Transition Webinar September 11, 2024 | 1:00 - 2:30pm ET Register now! 2024 National Cleanup Workshop September 16-18, 2024 | Crystal
Gateway Marriott (Arlington, VA) Register now!
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