Kansas Gas & Electric Co. v. United States

The Federal Claims court ordered DOE to pay three utility companies $10,632,454.83 for failing to collect spent nuclear fuel from the Wolf Creek Generating Station in Kansas in violation of their contract. The utilities' damages derive from their investigation of alternative spent nuclear fuel storage options and their implementation of a reracking project at Wolf Creek. The government conceded that it breached its duty under the contract; therefore, the only issue was damages. The utilities sought $14,148,967.10, but the court accepted the government's suggestion that the construction overhead award be reduced by the approximate percentage amount of material charges relating to the rerack project compared with the total cost of the project. Direct and overhead costs therefore total $11,432,454.83. The court then offset that amount by $800,000.00 for net benefits received from the reracking project.