A long, long time ago, when the nuclear power industry was just
getting started with substantial help from the federal
government, Congress passed the Atomic Energy Act of 1954.
That act said the federal government must take responsibility for
managing nuclear waste. In a series of followup pieces of
legislation, including the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 and a
subsequent 1987 amendment, Congress authorized the federal
government to collect money from nuclear power consumers --
through a surcharge on their electricity bills -- to pay for the
ultimate disposal of nuclear waste. The law directed the feds to
begin removing high-level radioactive waste from states by early
1998 as their part of the bargain.
The federal government
has collected $24 billion in payments from electricity ratepayers
across the country, $279 million of it from Maine Yankee
customers. But it has done nothing to haul away the 550 metric
tons of nuclear waste stored in this state, or the waste lying
around in any other state, because they have not been able to
convince any state to permanently accept the waste.
Forgive
us, but this ranks as deadbeat behavior, even if it comes from
Uncle Sam. We pay the government lots of money to do
something, and they don't do it. Generally, a case like this of
payments made and services never rendered is a recipe for a
lawsuit.
Which is just how Maine Yankee and other nuclear
power plants across the country saw it. In a series of separate
lawsuits filed years ago, they asked for damages against the U.S.
Department of Energy for not holding to its agreement to
remove the radioactive waste. This past week, those actions
finally bore fruit, when the U.S. Court of Federal Claims ordered
the feds to pay Maine Yankee ratepayers $75.8 million in
damages. Damages in the tens of millions were awarded to
ratepayers of other utilities as well.
Now, don't go spending
that money on a weekend shopping spree or fancy dinner yet.
It's highly likely that the federal government will appeal the
ruling, and the ratepayers' money that should rightfully be
returned to those who paid it will continue to be tied up in the
politics of nuclear waste disposal. Yet the ruling is at least a sign
that it is still the law of the land that money should be paid only
for services rendered. In the end, of course, we'd rather the
federal government kept our money, took the nuclear waste out
of Maine and stored it safely elsewhere, as it promised to do a
very long time ago.
MAINEJOBS
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Repeal the Nuclear Waste Policy Act.
This policy is an immoral law and should be repealed. Power companies who wish to go nuclear must deal with the waste themselves following NRC guidelines, instead of foisting it off on someone else. If our national policies can change to regard blacks as people instead of property, to give the vote to women, and to repeal prohibition, we can certainly repeal a corrupt law that gives unfair market advantage to one energy producing sector, while feeding its weapons machine.
Compensate power companies for their outlay into the Waste Fund.
I support the recent decision that awarded damages to the power companies for their payments into the Waste Fund. A promise was made, and due compensation should be paid. This could be done with funds currently earmarked for subsidies.
Stop subsidizing a toxic industry that exploits indigenous communities and contributes to weapons proliferation.
An industry which has been responsible for the poisoning of Navaho communities through poor uranium mining practices, forced relocation to known contaminated sites, wholesale theft of land from the Western Shoshone for the Nevada Test Site and Yucca Mountain and exploitation of the Goshute Band in Utah does not deserve such subsidies. Let it compete on its merits with other energy producing technologies. The waste produced by plants can be used in many forms for the construction of nuclear weapons, and has been subject to loss, theft and smuggling.
Revise NRC policies to allow more control by local communities.
If you don’t want nuclear waste in your state, fight against efforts to locate nuclear plants in your state. To do this, we must fight for a larger say by local communities in the siting and re-licensing of nuclear plants. Current policies disallow most local input, especially in the re-licensing phase. Just ask folks in the communities around Oyster Creek, Vermont Yankee and Pilgrim.
Store existing waste in hardened on-site storage.
If you already have nuclear power plants, fight against the re-licensing, and take the moral high ground; Diligently safeguard the waste from which you have benefited in above ground monitored facilities. This allows for constant surveillance. A hole in the ground, wherever it is located, is susceptible to leakage. Hanford, WA and Savannah River, GA are both cases where strategies for burying waste have failed, and local water supplies are being contaminated.
Close down existing nuclear plants and transition to other sources of energy generation.
Local, smaller scale plants are more reliable, and are subject to more local control. Wind and even solar are becoming cost competitive with natural gas. If waste is stored on site, plant infrastructure can be maintained, and costly decommissioning expenses avoided. It also prevents the transportation and dumping of the radioactive dismantled and ground up plant to other communities like Utah.
Eileen McCabe
Associate Director, Shundahai Network www.shundahai.org
report abuse
Perhaps those shareholders and consumers who profited by and supported the growth of the nuclear power industry could each offer to take a portion home for themselves and their descendants to guard from leakage and harm. Instead, we expect the feds to "find someplace" to hide this evidence of our overconsumption. Some years ago, I was ashamed as Mainers voted to allow Maine Yankee's waste to be sent to a poverty-stricken part of Texas. The effort failed, through no help from us.
Don't want to be culpable for the potential horror of leaking casks and radioactive bloom? Sign up for "green power" at meipl.org and TURN OFF THE LIGHTS WHEN YOU LEAVE THE ROOM!report abuse
Hmm... gas taxes for the highways, cigarette tax to offset healthcare costs, etc., etc... Sounds about right.report abuse
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