In an ongoing attempt to stop ratepayers from paying for the no-longer-viable radioactive waste depository at Yucca Mountain, NV, the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners and the Nuclear Energy Institute maintained that the existing fund would still grow even without continued payments. In an Oct. 20 filing with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, the organizations argued that the Department of Energy fund for the nuclear dump accrues interest at $1 billion/year. At the time the department suspended the Yucca Mountain facility in March 2010, the fund totaled $24 billion. The money was to be used to study, engineer, and build the repository. High-level radioactive waste from California’s two operating nuclear plants and two shut down units were set to be shipped to Yucca Mountain. Southern California Edison and Pacific Gas & Electric decided not to wait for the facility to be opened and instead built on-site dry cask storage at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, Diablo Canyon, and Humboldt Bay as temporary holding sites. Without the temporary storage, the operating plants would have to shut down as their spent fuel pools reached capacity. California ratepayers, as well as ratepayers in other states with nuclear power facilities, continue to pay into the Yucca Mountain fund. DOE wants to continue fund payments because the federal government is still required to find a permanent radioactive waste disposal site--even if it’s not Yucca Mountain.