Editorial:

Nuclear waste: Uncle Sam's unmet obligations

Copyright © 2006 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.

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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.