Posted on 12/01/2024 9:05:44 AM PST by Pontiac
The Department of Energy’s estimated overall liability for failing to dispose of the country’s commercial spent nuclear fuel jumped as much as 10 percent this year, from a range of $34.1 billion to $41 billion in 2023 to a range of $37.6 billion to $44.5 billion in 2024, according to a financial audit of the DOE’s Nuclear Waste Fund (NWF) for fiscal year 2024.
The estimated liability excludes $11.1 billion already paid out to nuclear power plant owners and utilities for the DOE’s breach of the standard contract for the disposal of spent fuel (10 CFR Part 961), which required the DOE to begin taking title of spent nuclear fuel for disposal by January 1998. Owners of spent fuel routinely sue the federal government for the continued cost of managing the fuel. The recovered costs are paid out from the Treasury Department’s Judgement Fund and not from the DOE.
According to the audit, conducted by the independent public accounting firm of KPMG, the liability estimate “reflects a range of possible scenarios” regarding the operating life of the current fleet of nuclear power reactors. The estimate is also based on when the DOE thinks it may begin taking spent fuel. In May, the DOE received initial approval (Critical Decision-0) for a consolidated interim storage facility for spent fuel that, if constructed, would be operational by 2046.
The Department of Energy Nuclear Waste Fund’s Fiscal Year 2024 Financial Statement Audit was released by the DOE Office of Inspector General on November 14.
The fund: The NWF, which was intended to finance the DOE’s disposal of spent fuel, had a balance of $52.2 billion as of September, according to the KPMG audit.
The NWF was funded through annual fees—initially, $0.001 for every kilowatt hour provided by a nuclear power plant—levied by the DOE on owners and generators of spent fuel. The DOE stopped collecting annual NWF fees, however, in 2014 following an order by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, which found that the DOE failed to justify the continued imposition of the fee following the suspension of the Yucca Mountain repository project.
Building a nuclear waste depository would be a good idea, and I am all for it, but the government needs to get back to good old broke.
If Trump is able to make BIG cuts in government maybe it can be done.
Wasn’t the bald headed lipstick guy who stole all those suitcases so he could wear women’s clothing without having to pay for it the one who was in charge of the nuclear waste before he got arrested?
You had discussed the storage of nuclear waste with me earlier.
I had no idea that FedGov was now PAYING for extended storage because of failure to build a national storage site.
This sounds like a typical FedGov boondoggle, all the way around. As usual, the taxpayer, and in this case, rate payer is picking up the tab. I also don’t even want to think, with train wrecks like Ohio, how this waste was going to be shipped to a national repository.
I can’t help but notice that “too cheap to meter” isn’t even mentioned any more, either.
$50 billion? That’s probably 0.01% of what the “Green Energy” scam is costing us. And 0.1% of what the open borders are costing us.
They should just dump it in the Mariana Trench.
Nope he was the head of the Department of Transportation (Pete Buttplug).
Jennifer Granholm is head of the DOE and responsible for Spent Fuel.
Can the Nevada storage site be completed? The one Harry Reed trashed...
We just need to build a new reprocessing reactor for spent fuel rods and most of the problem will be solved.
Spent fuel rods can be reprocessed into new ones so they are still pretty valuable.
Get rid of (Rockefeller butt boy) Jimmy Carter’s EO banning nuclear fuel reprocessing.
Problem solved.
But thanks to our greenie weenies, we can’t. France does plenty.
See the freak in post 10. He may have reported to Granholm, was in charge of spent fuel, believe it or not.
I still wonder if it steals luggage as a hobby or just loves doing it.
This guy:
“Brinton, who identifies as non-binary and uses they/them pronouns, previously served as the Biden administration’s “Deputy Assistant Secretary for Spent Fuel and Waste Disposition.” “
It stole women’s luggage, further harming and traumatizing them.
The Bidet admin is nothing but a collection of freaks, Anti-Americans and criminals selected solely to ruin and embarrass America.
“They should just dump it in the Mariana Trench.“
Do you want The Creature from the Mariana Trench?
Because that’s how you get The Creature from the Mariana Trench.
We already built and payed for it in Nevada where it currently sits empty.
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