October 2008

Nuclear Waste Fund

• Since 1983, electric consumers from 41 states have paid more than $30 billion, including interest, into the Nuclear Waste Fund (NWF).
• Ratepayers pay over $750 million per year into the NWF; with interest credits, this amount exceeds $1 billion annually.
• Annual appropriations to the disposal program represent approximately 25% of annual NWF receipts and interest from FY 2000–2008.
• Only 7.2% of accumulated annual receipt, including interest, has been appropriated from FY 2000-2008.
• $1.8 billion in annual funding will be required to continue development of the disposal program in FY 2009-2023, according to DOE.
• Money contained in the NWF has historically been diverted to other programs and used to offset the federal deficit.

Temporary Storage Facilities

• Spent nuclear fuel is stored in dry cask storage containers when spent fuel pools reach capacity or when reactor sites are shut down.
• Over 800 dry casks are currently being stored at 43 independent spent fuel storage sites licensed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
• 64 sites are expected to have dry cask storage by 2017, the earliest expected repository opening date.
• Six additional sites with shut down reactors already have dry storage facilities.
• Utility customers pay the costs of dry cask storage despite having already contributed billions of dollars into the federally mandated NWF.
• Taxpayers may also bear the costs of DOE’s liability for an estimated $500 million per year in additional costs for each year the repository’s opening is delayed beyond 2017.

The DOE is Experienced at Moving and Storing Spent Nuclear Fuel

• Has made approximately 68 shipments each year for more than 30 years without a single incident of release of radiation to the environment.
• Safely moves and stores spent nuclear fuel (SNF) from the U.S. Navy, research reactors, and from 41 foreign governments.
• Plans 6,795 shipments of high-level radioactive waste during the next 34 years, NOT including SNF from commercial nuclear power plants.
• DOE has safely and successfully received 6,942 transuranic waste shipments at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico as of October 13, 2008, without a single incident of release of radiation to the environment.