Dairyland Power Cooperative v. United States

38 Cont. Cas. Fed. 76,492, 27 Fed. Cl. 805, 1993 U.S. Claims LEXIS 298, 1993 WL 78016
CourtUnited States Court of Federal Claims
DecidedMarch 19, 1993
DocketNo. 91-1676C
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 38 Cont. Cas. Fed. 76,492 (Dairyland Power Cooperative v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Court of Federal Claims primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Dairyland Power Cooperative v. United States, 38 Cont. Cas. Fed. 76,492, 27 Fed. Cl. 805, 1993 U.S. Claims LEXIS 298, 1993 WL 78016 (uscfc 1993).

Opinion

ORDER

MOODY R. TIDWELL, III, Judge:

This case is before the court on defendant’s motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim, or, in the alternative, for summary judgment, and on plaintiff’s cross-motion for summary judgment. Plaintiff seeks damages in excess of $97 million. For the reasons set forth below, the court grants defendant’s motion for summary judgment, and denies plaintiff’s cross-motion for summary judgment.

FACTS

I. Operation and Sale of the LaCrosse Boiling Water Reactor

On June 6,1962, the United States Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), predecessor agency to the United States Department of Energy (DOE),1 and Dairyland Power Cooperative (DPC or plaintiff) executed contract number AT(11-1)-851 (the 1962 contract), subsequently redesignated DE-AC02-76ET37231. This contract was entered into in accordance with the Cooperative Power Reactor Demonstration Program, Pub.L. No. 87-315, § 109, 75 Stat. 679 (1961). Accord Pub.L. No. 85-162, § 111, 71 Stat. 409 (1957).

The 1962 contract required the AEC to construct a 50-megawatt boiling water nuclear reactor plant in the town of Genoa, near LaCrosse, Wisconsin, upon land provided by DPC. The reactor plant is sometimes referred to as the LaCrosse Boiling Water Reactor (LACBWR). The 1962 contract also required DPC to operate and maintain the reactor plant and an adjacent generator plant, and to purchase all steam produced by the reactor plant. The LACBWR achieved initial criticality on July II, 1967. DPC operated the LACBWR from November 1, 1969, when the AEC accepted the facility from the firm which had constructed it, until DPC permanently shut it down on April 30, 1987. The reactor plant was placed in commercial operation by DPC on February 1, 1971.

The 1962 contract provided for a ten-year operating period which, by agreement of the parties, began November 1, 1969. The [807]*807AEC was obligated, under the agreement, to offer to sell to DPC the reactor plant upon the expiration of this ten year term; at its option, the AEC could chose to offer it for sale after November 1, 1974. Article III of the 1962 contract expressly contemplated the sale of the LACBWR to DPC, providing, in pertinent part, as follows:

Upon expiration of the period of contract operation the [AEC] will, or during the preceding five-year period the [AEC] may, offer to sell the Reactor Plant to [DPC]____ [If certain conditions are met, DPC] will purchase the Reactor Plant and this contract shall thereupon expire. In such event, the purchase price for the reactor plant shall be the cost of construction ... less appropriate depreciation____
Upon expiration or termination of this contract, if [DPC] does not purchase the reactor and its appurtenances, the [AEC] may dismantle the reactor ... or the [AEC] may ... abandon ... the Reactor Plant ... and shall be under no obligation to restore [DPC]’s premises to their original condition or defray the expense of such restoration provided that the [AEC] will take such action as it may deem necessary within a reasonable time after abandonment to make the reactor site safe from the public health and safety standpoint.

In 1971 and 1972, the AEC and DPC conducted negotiations with respect to the early sale of the reactor plant. These negotiations culminated in an agreement in principle to sell the reactor, including two nuclear fuel cores, to DPC for an amount in excess of two million dollars.2 However, the transfer of the reactor to DPC was not effected upon the foregoing terms, as DPC felt that it had underestimated the costs of obtaining a full-term license to operate the plant. DPC therefore declined to execute the proposed sale agreement.

After further negotiations, the AEC agreed to transfer the reactor plant, two fuel cores, and spare parts to DPC for one dollar. This reduction in consideration was the only “substantive difference” between the current and previous proposed sale agreements. Proposed Sale of La Crosse Boiling Water Reactor to Dairyland Power Cooperative: Hearing Before the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy, 93d Cong., 1st Sess., at 3 (1973) [hereinafter the JCAE Hearing Report]. That is, the remaining principles of agreement between the parties remained constant. In connection with the approval of the revised transaction, the report of the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy (JCAE) contained the following statements:

The terms of the proposed sale are clearly less attractive to the Government than those of the previous arrangement____
The principal advantage to the Government from this sale would be that it would be relieved of the financial responsibility under the contract for the cost of operating and possibly decommissioning a reactor which has no further programmatic value____
The economic value of the plant to [DPC] depends upon how well the plant operates, for how long, and efficiencies and economies that can be effectuated by [DPC] in its operation. If the plant, as presently staffed and supported, operates well ... its economic value compared to that of a fossil-fueled plant of similar size is marginal. However, if DPC could reduce operating costs ... this would represent a present economic value of about $3.5 million which would be essentially offset by the initial cost to DPC of about $2.7 million for plant modifications to enable it to obtain a full operating license. Accordingly, for $1.00, DPC would obtain reactor fuel having a present value of approximately [808]*808$5 million and a reactor with presently marginal or doubtful value, but with the optimistic expectation that some operating economies could be achieved. But DPC, by purchasing the reactor ... is giving up the rights it has under the existing contract for an additional one or possibly six years in which to demonstrate the plant’s reliability and economics. If risks do materialize, the economic value of the reactor could be reduced practically to zero.

Id. at 33-34, Supplemental Appendix 2 (Memorandum from Edward J. Bauser, Executive Director, to all Committee Members).

It was also established during the JCAE hearings that (1) DPC viewed its purchase of the reactor as “a calculated risk, a gamble, if you will, that [DPC] can make this plant perform economically for [DPC’s] power system,” id. at 7; (2) the AEC would indemnify DPC up to $1 million for the cost of decommissioning the LACBWR “[i]f the plant goes completely sour before November 1974,” id. at 8-9; (3) DPC felt that in the event the LACBWR didn’t run effectively and “went sour” after November 1974, it “[would be] in a financial position to decommission the plant and to keep it in proper security,” id. at 9; and (4) the value of the reactor at the time of the hearings was about $10 million. Id. at 10. The foregoing congressional analysis concluded that, “[i]n view of the ... risks assumed by the DPC under the terms of the proposed sale, the sale ... would not appear to result in a windfall to DPC.” Id. at 34, Supplemental Appendix 2.

Three days after the August 3, 1973, congressional hearing upon the proposed reactor sale, the AEC and DPC executed a formal contractual modification to the 1962 contract — designated “Modification No.

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Bluebook (online)
38 Cont. Cas. Fed. 76,492, 27 Fed. Cl. 805, 1993 U.S. Claims LEXIS 298, 1993 WL 78016, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/dairyland-power-cooperative-v-united-states-uscfc-1993.