09 July 2009-- U.S. nuclear utilities are asking the Department of Energy to suspend payments to a nuclear waste plant that President Obama has said will not be built.

The Nuclear Energy Institute asked Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu to suspend payments for a the Yucca Mountain waste disposal site after President Obama said the country would not pursue it.

"There is no clearly defined program for disposal of spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste," said Frederick Butler, president of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners in a separate letter. "Therefore, there is no basis to assess the adequacy of fees that continue to be paid into the Nuclear Waste Fund."

President George W. Bush said in 2002 that Yucca Mountain would be a good site for nuclear waste, but President Obama said earlier this year that the U.S. would not build it there. No other site has been chosen.

Utilities said they will pay $769 million into the fund this year and more than $27 billion in fees has gone into the fund as of late 2007, according to a release from NARUC.