4. NUCLEAR PLANT

KCP&L owns 47% of Wolf Creek Generating Station (Wolf Creek), its only nuclear generating unit. Wolf Creek is located in Coffey County, Kansas, just northeast of Burlington, Kansas. Wolf Creek's operating license expires in 2045. Wolf Creek is regulated by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), with respect to licensing, operations and safety-related requirements.

Spent Nuclear Fuel and High-Level Radioactive Waste

Under the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982, the Department of Energy (DOE) is responsible for the permanent disposal of spent nuclear fuel. Wolf Creek paid the DOE a quarterly fee of one-tenth of a cent for each kilowatt hour (kWh) of net nuclear generation delivered and sold for the future disposal of spent nuclear fuel. KCP&L's 47% share of these costs were charged to fuel expense. The Nuclear Energy Institute, a number of individual utilities, and the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners sued the DOE seeking the suspension of this fee. In January 2014, the DOE submitted a proposal to Congress to set the fee at zero, which became effective on May 16, 2014.

In 2010, the DOE filed a motion with the NRC to withdraw its then pending application to the NRC to construct a national repository for the disposal of spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. An NRC board denied the DOE's motion to withdraw its application. In 2011, the NRC reexamined its decision and ordered the licensing board, consistent with budgetary limitations, to close out its work on the DOE's application. In August 2013, a federal court of appeals ruled that the NRC must resume its review of the DOE's application.

Wolf Creek is currently evaluating alternatives for expanding its existing on-site spent nuclear fuel storage to provide additional capacity prior to 2025. Management cannot predict when, or if, an off-site storage site or alternative disposal site will be available to receive Wolf Creek's spent nuclear fuel and will continue to monitor this activity.

Low-Level Radioactive Waste

Wolf Creek disposes of most of its low-level radioactive waste (Class A waste) at an existing third-party repository in Utah. Management expects that the site located in Utah will remain available to Wolf Creek for disposal of its Class A waste. Wolf Creek has contracted with a waste processor that will process, take title and dispose in another state most of the remainder of Wolf Creek's low-level radioactive waste (Classes B and C waste, which is higher in radioactivity but much lower in volume). Should on-site waste storage be needed in the future, Wolf Creek has current storage capacity on site for about four years' generation of Classes B and C waste and believes it will be able to expand that storage capacity as needed if it becomes necessary to do so.

Nuclear Decommissioning Trust Fund

The following table summarizes the change in Great Plains Energy's and KCP&L's nuclear decommissioning trust fund.



	June 30 2015			December 31 2014
Decommissioning Trust		(millions)
Beginning balance January 1		$	199.0		$	183.9
Contributions		1.6			3.3
Earned income, net of fees		1.5			3.6
Net realized gains		0.8			0.4
Net unrealized gains		0.4			7.8
Ending balance		$	203.3		$	199.0

The nuclear decommissioning trust is reported at fair value on the balance sheets and is invested in assets as detailed in the following table.



	June 30, 2015													December 31, 2014
	Cost Basis		Unrealized Gains			Unrealized Losses				Fair Value			Cost Basis			Unrealized Gains			Unrealized Losses				Fair Value
	(millions)
Equity securities	$	88.5		$	52.2		$	(0.6	)		$	140.1		$	87.2		$	50.6		$	(0.7	)		$	137.1
Debt securities	57.9			2.8			(0.4		)		60.3			55.4			3.8			(0.1		)		59.1
Other	2.9			—			—				2.9			2.8			—			—				2.8
Total	$	149.3		$	55.0		$	(1.0	)		$	203.3		$	145.4		$	54.4		$	(0.8	)		$	199.0

The weighted average maturity of debt securities held by the trust at June 30, 2015, was approximately 7 years. The costs of securities sold are determined on the basis of specific identification. The following table summarizes the realized gains and losses from the sale of securities in the nuclear decommissioning trust fund.



	Three Months Ended June 30						Year to Date June 30
	2015			2014			2015			2014
	(millions)
Realized gains	$	1.2		$	0.5		$	2.6		$	0.7
Realized losses	(1.2		)	(0.5		)	(1.8		)	(0.6		)