Pacific Gas & Electric was awarded $42.8 million in damages from the federal government because of the Department of Energy's failure to build a waste repository for spent fuel and other radioactive wastes from nuclear power plants. The court case found that the DOE committed a partial breach of contract. PG&E had sought $92 million in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims. "PG&E is pleased that the court recognized the federal government's breach of contract," stated Jeff Lewis, utility spokesperson. However, the utility is unhappy that the compensation is less than its documented $92 million claim through 2004. "In view of the fact that we believe the court erred in determining the amount of the award we are reviewing what possible steps we may take in response," Lewis added. The $92 million claim is not the amount of money PG&E paid to the DOE but is the sum the utility has paid to research and store nuclear wastes because the department has not constructed a long-term radioactive waste repository as promised. Waste storage payments for PG&E began in 1985, according to Lewis. The total amount paid through December of last year is a little over $299 million, he added. Currently, PG&E ratepayers send about $20 million per year to the Department of Energy, according to the court. While the court picked apart some of PG&E's claims in its October 13 ruling, it agreed with the utility's basic allegation that the federal government reneged on its contract to take nuclear waste. "This is not a typical breach of contract case," noted the court. "PG&E is not free to dispose of its waste in whatever manner it desires; indeed it had no real choice but to agree to whatever terms the federal government offered" in its terms for taking on radioactive waste. PG&E owns two nuclear plants, one at Humboldt Bay, which was shut down in 1976, and the other, Diablo Canyon, near San Luis Obispo. PG&E plans to construct dry-cask storage for the high-level wastes on site at each facility. While Humboldt Bay radioactive wastes stopped accumulating 30 years ago, Diablo Canyon continues to produce waste. Its current method of storing spent fuel is in a water-filled pool. However, room in that pool for new waste runs out this year, according to the utility. The government's plans to construct a dump at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, have been repeatedly delayed and its scientific underpinnings found flawed. This year, Congress gave up on the original Yucca Mountain plan for the most part, reverting to a still-contemplated Plan B for nuclear waste (Circuit, May 19, 2006). - J.A. Savage