When $50 billion can’t buy much of anything ...Middle East

Californians paid nearly $1 billion for the permanent disposal of waste from San Onofre, Diablo Canyon, et al.

Our sister states with nuclear plants forked over about $20.2 billion for same.

Yet nearly a half century after those initial payments were made, America’s commercial nuclear waste remains exactly where it started, even as the U.S. Nuclear Waste Fund fund’s original $21.2 billion has grown to an astonishing $60.1 billion, according to figures from the the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).

Minus what the department spent (squandered?) on the moribund Yucca Mountain project and related efforts over the years — about $11.5 billion — we have a current balance of some $49.5 billion in the NWF, just sitting around, waiting to spring to action.

That’s an awful lot of money. But it can’t do much of anything because, under current law, NWF dollars can buy a repository at Yucca. Period. And Nevada — which never had a commercial nuclear plant — will assure you that Yucca is never going to happen!

So that leaves a question: How can we make meaningful progress relocating this highly radioactive stuff that’s currently in our coastlines, and in earthquake zones, and  near millions and millions of people?

Do this!

Rod Baltzer, chief executive of Deep Isolation (a company that hopes to commercialize nuclear waste disposal) and chair of the U.S. Nuclear Industry Council’s Back-End Working Group, gave the following to-do list to the Spent Fuel Solutions coalition last week:

– Congress must amend the Nuclear Waste Policy Act to drop Yucca-and-Yucca only, and allow nuclear waste dollars to pursue other disposal efforts.

– While Congress is at it, the Act should be amended to allow for temporary storage — not currently allowed — while permanent storage is being pursued. The two should go hand-in-hand, or communities mulling temporary storage may not believe the mission is truly temporary.

-Responsibility for getting the job done should be stripped from the Department of Energy and handed to a new, independent agency that exists for this and this only. This new agency should get access to NWF dollars and not have to depend on political whims for its funding, as is the case now.

-Officials should educate and incentivize communities that are interested in hosting the waste (something they’re currently working on).

-We should embrace technological innovation, start building, launch pilot projects, consider reprocessing spent fuel, demonstrate transport casks for waste to the public.

-We should also allow for a broad regulatory framework that embraces many different solutions, not just one.

The current administration wants to accelerate the licensing of advanced reactors and put America back on the nuclear map. Figuring out where to put the waste will be integral to any dreams of a nuclear renaissance in America.

“It’s really beneficial if you spend a little time up front thinking about the back end,” Baltzer said.

If the government can show progress on spent waste disposal, it might be allowed to resume collecting money for the NWF.

Billions wasted

It’s important to understand that the U.S. government, in its attempts to goose the growth of nuclear power more than 40 years ago, signed contracts with utilities promising to start accepting commercial nuclear waste for permanent disposal by, er, 1998.

To fund disposal, a charge was built into electric rates — initially, $0.001 for every kilowatt hour provided by a nuclear power plant. But as years went by — and when money piled up in the NWF without the development of a repository — the fee wound up in court. Utilities were stuck with the headache and expense of storing waste themselves, so in 2014, a judge forbade the federal government from continuing to collect the NWF fees. How in good conscience could it charge for a service that it wasn’t providing, and wouldn’t provide for many, many decades?

This paralysis on waste has put taxpayers on the hook for billions — even those who never got a kilowatt of power from nuclear. The government breached its contract with the utilities and must pay them for the unexpected cost of temporary storage, the court has ruled  — but not from the NWF. Instead, taxpayers pony up — some $11 billion thus far, with some $40 billion gone before it’s all over, a recent audit said.

That’s about $2 million per day. Here at San Onofre, the feds have reimbursed Edison nearly $400 million for babysitting waste between 1998 and 2016, Edison recently told us.

“We have 92,500 metric tons of spent nuclear fuel stored at 70 sites in 35 states, and no permanent disposal,” Baltzer said. “Taxpayers are getting the brunt of this.”

Baltzer’s Deep Isolation specializes in deep borehole technology, a method long seen as a viable way to permanently ditch nuclear waste. The Spent Fuel Solutions coalition — a  collection of local governments, elected officials, environmental groups, businesses and regular folks — seeks to get these ideas in front of decision-makers. Funded with some $900,000 from Edison, $235,000 from San Diego Gas & Electric, and $100,000 each from the counties of Orange and San Diego, the coalition seeks to make things happen.

“It’s time,” Baltzer said.

“Stop kicking can down the road and handing this off to our grandkids.”

Hence then, the article about when 50 billion can t buy much of anything was published today ( Wednesday 29/10/2025 - 05:40 PM ) and is available on The Orange County Register ( Middle East ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.

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