Utilities Sue US Government To Suspend Nuclear Waste Fee

A raft of utilities is suing the Department of Energy to suspend collection of a nuclear waste management fee.

More than a dozen utilities, including Florida Power & Light Co. (FPL) and NextEra Energy Seabrook, have joined the Nuclear Energy Institute in the suit, arguing that because the DOE doesn't have a nuclear waste management plan, companies should no longer be charged the fee.

The DOE has collected more than $24 billion in fees based on a one-tenth of a cent per kilowatt-hour surcharge customers pay to foot the waste management bill, an annual $750 million in annual revenue to the waste management fund.

But the DOE hasn't managed any utility nuclear waste, and the Obama administration last year terminated the Yucca Mountain management program in Nevada. It has instead established a special panel that is charged with making recommendations to the DOE over the next two years for waste management alternatives.

In a letter to Energy Secretary Steven Chu last year, the Nuclear Energy Institute said the DOE collection of the fee should be suspended until a nuclear waste management program is defined and properly evaluated.

The utilities point out that the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 that initiated the waste fund requires the DOE to conduct an annual "fee adequacy review" for the fuel management program.

Chu has so far declined to suspend the fee. The DOE wasn't able to immediately comment.

The suit--filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia--follows a similar challenge to the DOE by the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners last week.

-By Ian Talley, Dow Jones Newswires, 202-862-9285; [e-mail]