US court awards SMUD $39 million for nuclear storage costs

San Francisco (Platts)--5Dec2006

The US Court of Federal Claims has awarded the Sacramento Municipal
Utility District $39.8 million in a breach of contract lawsuit against the US
Department of Energy, the utility said late Monday.

SMUD said the award comes after two related trials on the storage of
spent nuclear fuel from the utility's closed Rancho Seco Generating Station.

SMUD had contracted with DOE to collect and permanently dispose of its
spent nuclear fuel as required by federal law. But SMUD said the federal
government did not follow through on its obligation to collect and dispose of
SMUD's spent fuel due to delays in opening the Yucca Mountain storage facility
in Nevada.

In 1998, SMUD filed a lawsuit with the Court of Federal Claims in
Washington to recover the cost of building and operating a dry cask storage
system because the federal government was not making progress on the Yucca
Mountain disposal site.

"This is a major victory as it substantially mitigates the costs SMUD has
incurred due to the lack of a federal repository," said Steve Cohn, SMUD chief
assistant general counsel.

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