Once nuclear waste is generated it immediately begins to rack up financial burden. Due to the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982, the US government promised to have a permanent waste facility up and accepting deliveries by 1998. The funding for this project came from a small fee of .1 of a cent per kilowatt-hour of energy produced. The U.S. government estimates that because it has not held up its end of the deal they own nuclear utilities $7 billion and $500 million every year they don't provide a site (Wald, 2009). The temporary casks that the spent nuclear fuel is currently being place costs about $1-$2 million dollars a piece (Janberg, 2009) and that doesn't count the process of storing it in the pools for 3-5 years. The Yucca Mountain site has been in the planning and development stages for over 20 years and has also cost the US government over $38 billion dollars. At the same time the cost of temporary storage sites can range from $10 to $26 billion if a permanent storage site isn't opened within the next century (Illia, 2010)
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