Court orders DOE to take nuclear fuel.

By law, the Department of Energy has "an unconditional obligation" to begin disposing of high-level radioactive waste and used fuel from commercial power reactors by Jan. 31, 1998, or so ruled the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit last year. Shortly after that ruling, however, DOE notified utilities and state officials that it could not meet the deadline, largely because it lacked an approved site for long-term waste storage, such as the Yucca Mountain facility (SN: 11/1/97, p. 277). Indeed, the agency argues that this nuclear repository can't accept wastes for at least another 12 years.

Meanwhile, the utilities, which have been anteing up billions of dollars to cover the expected costs of DOE's disposal of their wastes, have been running out of space in which to store used fuel. So earlier this year, the utilities returned to court to challenge the legality of DOE's stalling.

On Nov. 14, the appellate court again found for the utilities, saying that DOE's lack-of-storage argument was insufficient grounds for reneging on its contractual obligations. In fact, the court noted that far from being unable to accept wastes, the agency was already routinely doing that for 41 other countries.

The court also ruled that there are means under the Nuclear Waste Policy Act for utilities to find remedies for any waste-holding costs they incur after Jan. 31.