With hasty stroke of a pen, Bush DOE transferred billions of dollars in radioactive waste liability onto taxpayers

From Beyond Nuclear:

Background: Between November 4, 2008 (the day Barack Obama was elected President) and January 22, 2009 (two days after he took the Oath of Office), the George W. Bush administration’s Department of Energy (DOE) hurriedly signed new irradiated nuclear fuel contracts with utilities proposing 21 new atomic reactors. This obligates U.S. taxpayers to ultimate financial liability for breach of contract damages if DOE fails to take possession of these estimated 21,000 metric tons of high-level radioactive waste by ten years after the new reactors’ licenses terminate. DOE signed these contracts despite the fact that it has already cost taxpayers $565 million in damages for past breached contacts involving old radioactive waste at commercial reactors, with $790 million more soon to be transferred from the U.S. Treasury to atomic utilities. In fact, DOE estimates that by 2020, taxpayers will have paid $12.3 billion in damages to nuclear utilities for waste contract breaches, while the nuclear industry itself estimates the ultimate taxpayer damage awards will top $50 billion. These new contracts will only add to that crushing burden.

Our View: President Obama and Energy Secretary Chu have wisely canceled the geologically unsuitable Yucca Mountain, Nevada dumpsite for high-level radioactive wastes. This is not only a tremendous victory for sound science and environmental protection, but also for environmental justice – Yucca belongs to the Western Shoshone Indian Nation, as recognized by treaty rights. There is already enough commercial waste to have filled Yucca to its legal limit, 63,000 metric tons. Old reactors are predicted to generate another 42,000 metric tons of high-level radioactive waste in decades to come; the 21 proposed new reactors will generate enough additional waste to fill a second Yucca Mountain-sized repository to its legal limit. Secretary Chu’s blue ribbon commission on radioactive waste begins deliberations on March 25th about what to do now that Yucca has been canceled. Environmental groups across the country agree that, as an interim measure, wastes must be safeguarded against accidents and leakage, as well as fortified against terrorist attacks, at the reactors that generated them in the first place. 170 groups representing every single state in the country have signed updated “Principles for Safeguarding Nuclear Waste at Reactors,” calling for hardened on-site storage and expressing united opposition to dirty, dangerous, and expensive reprocessing.

What You Can Do: Beyond Nuclear has helped break this major news story. See the media release, backgrounder on new waste disposal contracts (authored by Beyond Nuclear’s Kevin Kamps), Principles for Safeguarding Nuclear Waste at Reactors, and the new contracts themselves. Then Call the White House (202-456-1111) and DOE (202-586-6210) to thank President Obama and Energy Secretary Chu for their wise decision to cancel the scientifically, legally, and morally flawed Yucca Mountain radioactive waste dumpsite once and for all. Urge them to require hardened on-site storage as an interim measure, and to oppose reprocessing.