nuclear-news

Legal push to use Yucca Mountain for nuclear waste dump

It is the latest development in a multi-decade, multibillion dollar push to use Yucca Mountain as a nuclear-waste repository.

Federal Appeals Court To Begin Yucca Mountain Hearings In 2011 – WSJ.com, By Naureen S. Malik Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES NEW YORK 10 Dec 10, –The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia will hold earnings early next year on whether the Department of Energy has the right to withdraw its application to use Yucca Mountain as a nuclear-waste disposal site.

It is the latest development in a multi-decade, multibillion dollar push to use Yucca Mountain as a nuclear-waste repository. The U.S. government began reviewing options on how to handle nuclear waste when legislation to do so passed in 1982. In 2002, federal lawmakers identified the Nevada site as the way to move forward. About $10 billion has been spent on this process.
Early this year, the Energy Department filed to withdraw a license application filed with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in June 2008 to use the Nevada site as a repository for the radioactive waste. During the last presidential campaign, the Democrat candidates promised to put a halt Nevada nuclear-waste ambitions…….

A Nuclear Regulatory Commission panel said this past June that the Energy Department didn’t have the authority to rescind the application, a move that energy agency is opposing in a final appeal with the commission’s board.

After waiting months for the nuclear agency to make a move, the Appeals Court, which put the case on hold to give the nuclear regulatory agency a chance to decide the matter, granted an order to allow the court case proceed.

Parties must file their briefings by the end of January 2011 and oral arguments are expected to take place around March and April. Certainly, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission could make a decision during this court process, but any further appeals regarding the nuclear agency’s decision would be made in the judicial system.

Federal Appeals Court To Begin Yucca Mountain Hearings In 2011 – WSJ.com

December 13, 2010 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Legal, USA