The National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners approved a resolution Feb. 18, calling for the federal government to return $22 billion that ratepayers have paid into the Nuclear Waste Fund if there is "additional delay" in the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository project.rnA spokesman for the utility commissioners group said they are not asking the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to expedite the three-year licensing process that the Yucca Mountain, Nev., project is currently undergoing.rnBut pending the outcome of that process, the commissioners want it to be known that ratepayers and nuclear utilities should "either get their money's worth or get their money back," the NARUC spokesman said.rnThe Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 established the Nuclear Waste Fund, with the expectation that the Department of Energy would provide a repository for the disposal of spent nuclear fuel from licensed nuclear power plants by Jan. 31, 1998.rnBut it was not until 2002 that Congress approved plans for Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, as the site for the repository. In the meantime, electric utility companies have been collecting a surcharge from ratepayers to cover the future costs of storing spent nuclear fuel at the repository.rnMany legal and political setbacks have delayed the Energy Department's effort to get a license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to build and operate the repository. The application for a license was finally submitted to the NRC in September 2008, triggering a three-year technical review, with a possible one-year extension.
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