A number of US nuclear utilities have filed a lawsuit with the federal court, suing the US Department of Energy (DOE) to start removing radioactive waste from their facilities, Reuters reports.
Otherwise the utilities want the court to suspend payment from utilities into a special fund intended to cover the cost of disposing of the nuclear waste.
The lawsuit seeks to force the DOE to provide a plan within 30 days for the removal of high-level waste which is currently stored in nuclear power plants across the USA.
A fund was set up 15 years ago to pay for the removal and storage of this spent nuclear fuel, which will remain active for thousands of years.
Thirty-six utilities are involved in the suit. Another five have filed separate but similar suits.
Completion of a federal waste repository is still many years away. But under a 1982 law, the DOE was to move the spent fuel from 70 sites starting 31 January 1998. However, the DOE has issued no plans to move the waste.
The US Court of Appeals for the District of Colombia reaffirmed last November that the DOE was obliged to take the waste, but also suggested that the utilities should estimate the damages and costs resulting from its failure to meet the deadline. The DOE’s response was to pay the costs from the $14 billion fund into which the utilities have been paying.
The utilities and also a number of US states want the DOE to build a temporary nuclear waste dump to help overcome the problem. They want it built in Nevada at a site once used for testing nuclear weapons.
The US administration opposes the creation of a temporary store, saying it would divert resources from a long-term repository.
In the recently filed lawsuit, the utilities are also asking the court to prevent the DOE terminating the disposal contracts.