David Cay Johnston: “the Government cannot violate contractual rights. The second question is what is the duty of the Federal Government with…”

“the Government cannot violate contractual rights. The second question is what is the duty of the Federal Government with respect to nuclear waste? It so happens that the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia has decided that very question definitively and clearly on July 23, 1996. Here is what they have said... Thus we hold that section 302(a)(5)(B) creates an obligation in DOE, reciprocal to the utilities' obligation to pay, to start disposing of spent nuclear fuel no later than January 31, 1998. Let me repeat that: . . . we hold that the Nuclear Waste Policy Act creates an obligation in DOE . . . to start disposing of the spent nuclear fuel no later than January 31, 1998. What the decision does is delineates between the duty of the Federal Government to accept title, which the court clearly says is dependent upon the completion of a nuclear repository, and the duty to dispose of the spent nuclear fuel on January 31, 1998, which is an absolute duty. So, come January 31, 1998, the Federal Government must dispose of this nuclear waste, whether or not the facility is complete.”