Who pays for the waste disposal program?
(Customers who use nuclear power pay for the disposal of spent fuel. The federal government collects a fee of one mil —onetenth of a cent— per kilowatt-hour of nuclear-generated electricity from utilities. This money goes into the Nuclear Waste Fund. In addition, Congress makes an annual appropriation from the General Fund of the U.S. Treasury to pay for disposal of defenserelated high-level radioactive waste. The Department of Energy, the State of Nevada, and local governments that could be affected by the proposed repository receive money from the Nuclear Waste Fund through congressional appropriations. The Government Accountability Office, an arm of the U.S. Congress, is required by the Nuclear Waste Policy Act to conduct annual audits of the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management. Additionally, financial audits are conducted annually by a public accounting firm.) f) The Department of Energy, Department of Transportation, Environmental Protection Agency, Nuclear Regulatory
