Almost 30 years ago, Congress addressed growing concerns regarding nuclear waste management by calling for the federal collection of spent nuclear fuel (SNF) and high-level waste for safe, permanent disposal. To this end, the Department of Energy (DOE) was authorized by the Nuclear Waste Policy Act (NWPA) to enter into contracts with nuclear power providers to gather and dispose of the provider's SNF in exchange for payments into the statutorily established Nuclear Waste Fund (NWF). Under the terms of the NWPA, these contracts were to require that the federal government begin disposal of the nation's nuclear waste no later than January 31, 1998. Over 10 years ago, DOE breached these nuclear waste contracts by failing to begin the acceptance and disposal of SNF by the statutory deadline established in the NWPA. As a result, nuclear utilities have spent billions of dollars on temporary storage for toxic SNF that DOE was contractually and statutorily required to collect for disposal. The breach has triggered a prolonged series of suits by nuclear power providers, many of which continue unresolved to this day. Approximately 78 breach of contract claims have been filed against DOE since 1998, resulting in over $2 billion in damage awards and settlements thus far. In 2010 alone, the U.S. Court of Federal Claims awarded nuclear utilities approximately $507 million in contract damages. Many of these awards, however, remain on appeal with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and are not yet final. Estimates for the total potential liability incurred by DOE as a result of the nuclear waste contract litigation exceed $20 billion. Moreover, after decades of political, legal, administrative, and environmental delays, the Obama Administration has eliminated all funding for the Yucca Mountain repository project, closed the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management, and reemphasized an intention to pursue other alternatives for the disposal of SNF by establishing the Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future. In addition, DOE has attempted to permanently withdraw the Yucca Mountain construction authorization license from consideration before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC)—an action that triggered two separate lines of litigation before the NRC and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (D.C. Circuit). Accordingly, contract damages will continue to build as delays in the disposal of SNF continue. This report analyzes more than 15 years of ongoing litigation over the government's obligations to collect and dispose of SNF under the NWPA. First, the report will provide a brief overview of the NWPA, the statute's subsequent amendments, and its relationship to nuclear waste disposal. Second, the report will provide a survey of key legal issues that have emerged during the protracted waste storage contract litigation, including a discussion of a significant jurisdictional dispute between the D.C. Circuit and the U.S. Court of Federal Claims. Finally, the report will consider the prospects for future liability arising as a result of further delays in the disposal of the nation's high-level nuclear waste. Responding to the serious hazards of nuclear waste, Congress passed the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 in an effort to centralize the long-term management of nuclear waste by making the federal government responsible for collecting, transporting, storing, and disposing of the nation's SNF. In order to achieve this goal, the NWPA established a statutory system for selecting a site for a geologic repository for the permanent disposal of nuclear waste. DOE was authorized by the statute to carry out the disposal program and develop the permanent nuclear waste repository. Commercial nuclear power owners and operators would fund a large portion of the program through significant annual contributions, or fees, to the newly established Nuclear Waste Fund (NWF). To carry out the statutory scheme created by the NWPA, DOE was also authorized to enter into contracts with private nuclear facilities to allow the federal government to take possession of nuclear waste and ensure its storage and disposal in the prospective permanent repository. Section 302 of the NWPA sets out the critical statutory deadline established in the NWPA and forms the main basis for litigation. This provision mandates: (A) Following commencement of operation of a repository, the Secretary shall take title to the high-level radioactive waste or spent nuclear fuel involved as expeditiously as practicable upon the request of the generator or owner of such waste or spent fuel; and (B) In return for payment of fees established by this section, the Secretary, beginning not later than January 31, 1998, will dispose of the high-level radioactive waste or spent nuclear fuel involved as provided in this subtitle. In an effort to streamline the collection and disposal process, DOE elected to create a single "Standard Contract for Disposal of Spent Nuclear Fuel and/or High Level Radioactive Waste" (Standard Contract) for use with nuclear power providers. DOE chose to develop the Standard Contract through the formal notice-and-comment rulemaking process. The final contract, published in the Federal Register, somewhat modified the language of the NWPA and provides: The services to be provided by DOE under this contract shall begin, after commencement of facility operations, not later than January 31, 1998 and shall continue until such time as all SNF ... has been disposed of. Although the NWPA did not expressly mandate that all nuclear utility providers enter into an agreement with DOE for the disposal of nuclear waste, the utilities were required to enter into the Standard Contract as a condition of renewing or obtaining the required operating license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). All operating nuclear facilities, therefore, became parties to the Standard Contract. By 1987, pursuant to its obligations under the NWPA, DOE had identified three potential sites for the permanent repository: Yucca Mountain, Nevada; Hanford, Washington; and Deaf Smith County, Texas. In 1987, Congress amended the NWPA to name Yucca Mountain as the sole candidate site for the permanent repository. The amendments, strongly lobbied for by the congressional delegations from Washington and Texas, did not, however, end the DOE selection and approval process which continued as outlined under the NWPA. By 1993, DOE had made little progress in preparing to take possession of SNF, and the Yucca Mountain facility was at least a decade or more away from completion. Concerned as to whether DOE would be able to meet its contractual obligations by the end of January 1998, the nuclear utilities, which had been paying into the NWF for 11 years, requested in writing that DOE address its responsibilities under the NWPA and update the signatories of the Standard Contract on DOE's overall preparedness. DOE initially responded to this request with an informal letter, stating that DOE's interpretation of the Standard Contract was that the department's contractual obligations were not triggered until the nation's permanent repository was complete. In response to this interpretive dispute, DOE sought comments from the public on the department's statutory obligations under the NWPA and the Standard Contract. After further review, DOE issued a "Final Interpretation of Nuclear Waste Acceptance Issues" which formally pronounced the department's position that it had no "legal obligation under either the [NWPA] or the Standard Contract to begin disposal of SNF by January 31, 1998, in the absence of a repository or interim storage facility." Pursuant to this interpretation, the department added that it would not begin accepting nuclear waste from nuclear utilities by the date specified in the act, nor did it have authority under the NWPA to provide interim storage for spent nuclear fuel. In the alternative, the DOE notice stated that were Section 302 to create an unconditional obligation on the part of DOE to begin disposing of nuclear waste by January 31, 1998, redress should be governed by the "unavoidable delay" provisions of the Standard Contract which expressly states that "no party shall be liable for damages in the case of unavoidable delay." Nuclear utility companies, having paid billions into the NWF since 1982 in addition to the millions spent for on-site temporary storage, turned to the federal courts to review DOE's interpretation of its own obligations under the NWPA and the Standard Contract. Issues relating to the NWPA have been consistently litigated for the last 15 years, and will continue to be litigated into the immediate future. Many difficult legal questions have arisen during this time period due to the somewhat peculiar relationship between the NWPA and the Standard Contract and the courts' attempts to distinguish between statutory and contractual duties. Although DOE argued early on that the department had no obligations absent a completed permanent repository, the courts have ruled that DOE had a statutory obligation to begin collecting SNF by no later than January 31, 1998. As that statutory obligation was also converted into a contractual obligation through the Standard Contract, the courts have also determined that DOE's delay in collecting the nuclear utilities' SNF has placed the federal government in partial breach of contract. Additionally, overturning a divergent decision by the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (Federal Circuit) has affirmed a D.C. Circuit order that prohibits DOE from concluding that the lack of a permanent repository excuses DOE from liability for the delay in acceptance of SNF. Approximately 78 lawsuits have been filed against DOE related to the department's failure to commence the collection and disposal of SNF. Of the lawsuits, a large majority remain pending. As of the end of 2011, the government's liability—based on settlements, final judgments, and entered judgments under appeal—stands at over $2 billion. The following section will highlight key court decisions that have emerged from the ongoing contractual dispute between DOE and the nuclear power utilities. The first NWPA-related claim against DOE was filed in the D.C. Circuit in 1996.