Matthew Bandyk reports that the federal government owes $20.6 million to the operator of Entergy Corp Palisades nuclear plant in Michigan for failing to deal with spent fuel, a U.S. Court of Federal Claims judge said in the latest of many nuclear waste-related court decisions that have placed financial blame on the government.
In May, the court accepted a motion from Entergy that the government should pay that amount for breaching a contract by not disposing of the plant waste starting in 1998. In 2012, Entergy had sued over the alleged breach, claiming it was owed about $36 million. An expert for the government calculated that Entergy was due only $20.6 million, and the remaining $15.7 million is still in dispute.
The government responded that the court should reconsider and not grant any judgment until the case is fully litigated, but Judge Nancy Firestone rejected that argument in a July 17 order.
Nuclear plant operators and the federal government have clashed in court over which party is liable for storing radioactive spent fuel. For example, last year Entergy sued over the waste sitting at the since-retired Vermont Yankee plant and costs incurred for storing it since 2008. Entergy had already won $40 million for costs for the Vermont Yankee spent fuel from 1998 to 2008.
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