WISCASSET, Maine (AP) — A federal judge has awarded more than $100 million to the owners of three closed nuclear plants in New England because of spent nuclear fuel that has yet to be removed by the U.S. government.

The Portland Press Herald reports the owners of Maine Yankee in Wiscasset, Maine, Yankee Rowe in Rowe, Massachusetts, and Connecticut Yankee in Haddam, Connecticut, won a partial summary judgment of $103.2 million from the federal government last week.

The Wiscasset plant's award will help offset the annual cost of operating a spent fuel storage site. That costs about $10 million per year.

The three companies that own the plants share a president, Wayne Norton. He says courts previously awarded the companies nearly $500 million in three separate cases.

The plants closed in the 1990s.