Palisades owners sue US Energy Dept

COVERT TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) - The owners of the Palisades nuclear power plant in southwestern Michigan are suing the Energy Department over waste disposal.

The Kalamazoo Gazette reports a unit of New Orleans-based Entergy Corp. claims it's paying about $6 million a year to the government to take nuclear waste from the plant in Van Buren County's Covert Township, but the Energy Department hasn't done so. Entergy says its own storage has cost about $100 million.

The lawsuit filed last month also includes waste at the decommissioned Big Rock Point plant near Charlevoix.

The Justice Department, which is handling the case, declined to comment Tuesday to The Associated Press.

A plan for national waste storage at Yucca Mountain in the Nevada desert was scrapped two years ago. Other nuclear plant operators filed similar lawsuits.