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NARUC's View on Suspension of the Nuclear Waste Fee

Over at our main website, we've just published a Q&A with the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners on what might happen next with the Nuclear Waste Fee. Among the takeaways:
  • As of Dec. 31, 2013, consumers have paid more than $20 billion into fund
  • While fee is no longer being collected, interest accrues on the balance
  • NARUC believes once program "gets back on its feet," collection of the fee would resume
The fee totaled about $750 million a year industrywide and, since its inception, more than $20 billion has been paid into the fund by nuclear energy consumers. See map for totals by state:


Our readers will recall that the fee was suspended last month after an appellate court ruled last November that in light of the department’s termination of the Yucca Mountain repository program, DOE could not continue to collect the surcharge of one-tenth of a cent per kilowatt-hour on consumers of nuclear-generated electricity. Here's what NEI's Marv Fertel had to say last month when the fee was finally suspended.



For more details on nuclear waste management, see our website.

Comments

The nuclear waste fund should be used to finance:

1. The building of temporary Federal spent fuel repositories located in every State that produces spent fuel.

2. The building of spent fuel reprocessing plants to gradually introduce reprocessed fuel into current reactors and eventually into next generation thorium reactors.

Treating spent fuel like hazardous waste instead of as a reusable source of clean energy only helps to demonize the commercial nuclear industry, IMO.

Marcel
Joffan said…
A $20 billion fund has power to change things without even spending it. This could be used as assurance to justify widespread low-interest loans for nuclear construction without any fees or claims of subsidy - it's the nuclear industry that is subsidizing the government right now, after all.
Anonymous said…
The waste fee is/was paid by electricity consumers, not "the nuclear industry." That fee is for management and disposal of spent nuclear fuel from commercial power reactors, not development of the nuclear power industry.
Mitch said…
Marcel F. Williams said...>Treating spent fuel like hazardous waste instead of as a reusable source of clean energy only helps to demonize the commercial nuclear industry, IMO.<

Can't be shouted hard enough!
Anonymous said…
NEI is thumping its chest over Harry Reid smirking while you filed suit to stop the collection of financial resources needed to review an active license application, close the fuel cycle and regain waste confidence? Guys, your lawyers are myopic, you've won a lawsuit this is going to lose you the war. It isn't just about resuming NWF contributions (BTW, that is such a shallow analysis that it hurts my head just reading it) because the momentum and critical mass for the entire program has been obliterated. Stopping the contributions was a totally wasted effort. You guys were duped and diverted. The focus should have been on the Mandamus, contempt of the court with some jail time to think about it, no confidence votes in Congress, and investigations of malfeasance in the Senate ML office and White House, and misfeasance in the Jaczko, MacFarlane, Chu and Moniz regiemes.

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