We Energies $31 Million Settlement Re Failed Yucca Mtn

The Milwaukee utility, We Energies, reached a settlement that will return $31 million to its customers from Uncle Sam. The settlement money is expected to be paid to We Energies by the end of March. The utility's claim was linked to funds it spent to build concrete casks outside the Point Beach nuclear plant, where spent nuclear fuel from the Point Beach reactors is stored.

The Department of Energy's failed to meet a 1998 deadline it had committed to for opening a national collection and storage site for nuclear reactor fuel waste. We Energies is the former owner of the state's largest nuclear plant, Point Beach. Together with the Kewaunee power plant, the reactors along Lake Michigan near Green Bay generate more than 15% of Wisconsin's power. The utility originally sought to recoup $96 million from the federal government and was awarded $50 million in a decision by the Federal Court of Claims in December 2009.  The Department of Energy appealed, but then approached We Energies to negotiate a settlement.

Through a surcharge on monthly electric bills that ended when Point Beach was sold, We Energies ratepayers paid $215 million into an $18 billion federal government fund that would have been used to pay for the opening of Yucca Mountain. The government had proposed to open a repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada, but that project was canceled two years ago.

We Energies continues to buy the electricity generated at Point Beach. The plant was sold in 2007 and is now operated by Florida-based NextEra Energy Resources. (JSOnline, 2/20/2011)