By: Associated Press//February 21, 2011//
MILWAUKEE (AP) — We Energies has settled a lawsuit with the federal government that will return $31 million to the Milwaukee utility’s customers.
The settlement ends more than a decade of litigation and negotiation.
We Energies filed suit after the U.S. Department of Energy failed to meet a 1998 deadline to open a national storage site for spent nuclear fuel.
That forced the utility to build its own concrete casks to store used nuclear fuel from the Point Beach reactors it owned at the time.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports that We Energies initially wanted $96 million. A federal court awarded it $50 million in 2009, a ruling the Department of Energy appealed.
We Energies spokesman Roman Draba said the government eventually approached the utility to negotiate a settlement.
Information from: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, http://www.jsonline.com