Connecticut ratepayers will no longer have to foot the bill to store nuclear waste in Haddam and Waterford, a U.S. appeals court ruled Tuesday.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia issued a decision in the fight between the nation’s utilities and the U.S. Department of Energy over the temporary storage of spent uranium at sites across the nation, including the two in Connecticut.
In the ruling, the court said the U.S. Department of Energy could no longer collect a one-tenth of a cent per kilowatt hour of electricity charge on ratepayers in states with nuclear facilities. The charge first imposed in the 1980s, which amounted to $750 million annually across the nation, was supposed to be used to develop a permanent repository for nuclear waste.
The fund has grown to more than $28 billion, according to the court filings.
Since taking office, President Barack Obama has ceased development of the Yucca Mountain site that was supposed to be the permanent repository, and his administration has no plans for development of another site elsewhere. Because of this lack of plans, the appeals court ruled the U.S. Department of Energy can no longer collect the fee.
The U.S. Department of Energy was supposed to start moving the nuclear waste from its temporary storage sites around the nation in 1998, but that never happened because the permanent repository was never developed.
Because of the lack of movement, the nuclear facilities have successfully sued the federal government for recovery of the storage fees. Connecticut ratepayers have received $200 million in this year alone to cover the storage at the decommissioned Connecticut Yankee facility in Haddam and the active Millstone Power Station in Waterford.
