COURT: GOV CAN'T ARGUE'UNAVOIDABLE DELAYS' IN SPENT FUEL CASES

摘要

A federal appeals court ruled last week that the federal government cannot claim that its failure to open the Yucca Mountain repository for high-level nuclear waste is an 'unavoidable delay' in terms of its ability to uphold its contractual obligations to remove spent fuel from nuclear plant sites. The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit finalized its decision Jan. 12 in the case of Nebraska Public Power District v. United States, overturning a 2006 ruling from the Court of Federal Claims. The most recent ruling upheld a 1997 D.C. Circuit Court ruling that there is "no room for DOE to argue that it does not have a clear duty to take the [nuclear waste] from the owners and generators by the deadline imposed by Congress," even using the "unavoidable delays" clause that is included in DOE's standard contracts with utilities for removal of spent fuel.