Dive Brief:

• Nuclear power operators and the electric utility industry scored a big victory Tuesday when a federal appeals court ruled that a fee utilities pay for nuclear waste disposal should be changed to zero until the Department of Energy comes up with a plan to dispose of the nation's 70,000 metric tons of nuclear waste. The bill amounted to $750 million last year.
• The ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit is a victory for the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners, who brought the suit over the one-tenth of a cent fee that nuclear power customers pay for each kilowatt-hour of electricity.
• To date, more than $30 billion has been collected and much of it has been invested in developing the suspended waste repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada.   

Dive Insight: 

Since there has been no agreement on the merits of a central depository for the nation's nuclear waste, utilities with nuclear generation have developed storage solutions on site. In most cases, the on-site storage is sufficient to accommodate waste for decades to come. The Energy Department has 45 days to ask the court for a rehearing. After that, it must ask Congress to set the fee at zero.