Court rebuffs utilities in nuke fight

Monday, March 6, 2000 | 11:22 a.m.

SUN WIRE REPORTS

WASHINGTON -- Consolidated Edison Inc. and three other utilities failed at the U.S. Supreme Court to revive a lawsuit seeking to limit the fees the Energy Department can charge for storage of spent nuclear fuel.

The suit was one of several being pressed by utilities in a multibillion-dollar feud with the federal government over radioactive material sitting at commercial reactor sites around the country.

The companies sought to bar the Energy Department from using its inability to arrange a permanent disposal site as the basis for increasing fees. The department already has collected more than $13 billion, money designed to pay for a final storage facility.

The case involved CMS Energy Corp., RGS Energy Group Inc. and PG&E Corp., as well as Consolidated Edison.

Nuclear power companies are eager to rid themselves of the expensive burden of storing the spent fuel in cooling pools and concrete casks at reactor sites.

Government officials are struggling to develop a plan for the spent fuel. Although the Senate recently passed a bill that would require the government to manage the waste at the power plants until it can be permanently stored, the Clinton administration has promised a veto.

While officials are studying Nevada's Yucca Mountain as a permanent repository, that site won't be ready for at least a decade, if at all.

In other action, the court: