Lawyers, Help me with my homework: The Nuclear Waste Fund & Liability

[Faeelin]

So I'm helping a professor research the Nuclear Waste Fund, and the consequences of a government breach. In essence, in 1982 the government passed a law requiring nuclear polants to sign contracts with the Dept. of Energy, in return for which the government agreed to responsible for storage after... 2001 or so, I forge t the exact date.

Now obviously the government's been in breach of contract, and so it's been losing case after case on the issue. What nobody has proposed, however, is a sort of settlement fund, where the government pays plants for storing the waste in order to avoid getting sued. I'm thinking of something like the Septemer 11th fund. On the surface, it's a reasonable idea; it'll cut down on litigation costs,  reduce the delays in getting money, etc. But this isn't being proposed.

What is being proposed by power companies is simpy refunding the money from the Nuclear Waste Fund. What's the advantage of this over a settlement fund? This part is mostly conjecture, but The Nuclear Waste Fund was designed to pay for Yucca Mountain's development. The cost of onsite storage would be considerably less, of course, and in the long run a geologic depository is inevitable. But if the NWF has been scrapped, then the cost of building it would probably fall on the government and not the power companies.

Thoughts? Does this make no sense at all, etc.

[crazy canuck]

I am sure that one of our US lawtalkers would be happy to be retained to provide this opinion.  Just PM one of them and they will arrange for the proper amount to be transferred into their trust account before they start the work.