Fed pays $81.7M to Maine Yankee
The federal government has paid $81.7 million to the Maine Yankee Atomic Power Co. to settle a 14-year-old court case seeking reimbursement of the company's costs in storing spent nuclear fuel at its decommissioned reactor site in Wiscasset between 1998 and 2002.
Damages of $38.3 million also have been paid to Yankee Atomic Electric Co. and $39.7 million to Connecticut Yankee Atomic Power Co., which had joined Maine Yankee in Phase 1 of a continuing spent fuel litigation case against the Department of Energy.
The companies sought reimbursement of spent fuel storage costs as a result of the government's failure to honor a contract obligation to begin removing spent nuclear fuel and greater than Class C waste from the three nuclear reactor sites by January 1998.
The Phase I litigation damages represent damages through 2001 for Connecticut Yankee and Yankee Atomic and through 2002 for Maine Yankee, according to an email from Eric Howes, director of public and government affairs for Maine Yankee.
Howes said the damage award funds were transferred from the U.S. Treasury to the three companies and have been deposited into their respective trust funds after the federal government decided not appeal a 2012 U.S. Court of Appeals judgment in favor of the three companies.
Based upon existing regulatory agreements, the funds remaining after the payment of federal and state taxes will be used for the benefit of ratepayers, he said.
The three companies plan to make filings with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in the next several months that will detail their approach for the best way to use the proceeds from the damage awards to benefit the ratepayers.
Howes said the ongoing litigation between the three companies and the Department of Energy is being conducted in phases as an earlier U.S. Court of Claims decision ruled that utility companies, such as the three companies, cannot receive damage awards for costs that have not yet been incurred.
As a result, he said, the three companies expect to continue to litigate with the DOE every several years claiming damages for costs incurred. The companies are currently seeking approximately $247 million in additional damages from the DOE in a second round of cases that were filed in 2007, which have yet to be decided. The companies also anticipate that they will file a third round of damages claims by the end of 2013.
Maine Yankee spends almost $9 million per year safeguarding spent nuclear fuel rods and other highly radioactive waste stored in 64 airtight steel canisters encased in concrete at the decommissioned Wiscasset site.
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