Southern California Edison Co. v. U.S.

Aug 23: In the U.S. Court of Appeals, Federal Circuit, Case No. 2010-5147. Appealed from the United States Court of Federal Claims. In brief summary as explained by the Appeals Court, the case involves another of the spent nuclear fuels cases, the United States (Government) had contracted to dispose of plaintiff's spent nuclear fuel and related wastes; as in the other cases, the contract continues to be breached because the United States has yet to perform. The only issue before us is the measure of damages, specifically, whether certain indirect overhead costs incurred by plaintiff can be included in plaintiff's damages calculations. The United States Court of Federal Claims concluded that such indirect costs are includable. The Government appeals. The Appeals Court said, "Because the trial court did not err in its conclusion, we affirm."

 

    The Appeals Court explained further, "In this case, the Government's breach of the Standard Contract caused SCE to build, staff, and maintain an entirely new facility for SNF [spent nuclear fuel] storage. SCE [Southern California Edison] specifically constructed the ISFSI [Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation] facilities to mitigate the Government's breach. Because the ISFSI facilities had not existed prior to the Government's breach, and indeed were necessitated by the breach, this is not a case where the underlying costs were incurred by operations independent of and unrelated to the breach."

 

    Access the complete opinion (click here). [#Haz/Nuclear, #CAFed]

 

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