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USA’s endless wrangle over its mounting nuclear waste

Yucca Nuclear Waste Wars, Aol Energy, By , September 19, 2011“………Utility commissioners renewed their request to an appeals court to force the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to make a decision on whether spent nuclear fuel can be safely stored at Yucca Mountain in Nevada.

The National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners(NARUC), together with the states of Washington and South Carolina and two counties in Nevada, said in a court filing on September 16 that the NRC has delayed a decision on the disposal of nuclear waste at the Nevada site, and shows no sign that it will reach any conclusion in future.

“The NRC continues to unreasonably delay consideration of the license application and violate its duty to render a decision approving or disapproving the application,” NARUC said.

An order filed by the NRC with the US Court of Appeals in Washington DC on September 9 “leaves no doubt that the NRC has no intention of complying with its statutory duties to consider the Yucca Mountain application and render a final decision on that application within the timeframe established by Congress,” NARUC said.

It urged the court to issue an expedited order directing the NRC to decide on the Yucca issue.

In July, the US Court of Appeals in Washington D.C. threw out a case from the two states and upheld the NRC’s regulatory authority over the Yucca waste dump, but the decision also noted that the NRC had to make a decision.

“We will not permit an agency to insulate itself from judicial review by refusing to act,” the court said in its July ruling. Read more: Face Off Over Nuclear Waste Storage Takes A New Twist. …

the commissioners’ group is continuing to pursue its legal action because it wants relief for its members’ ratepayers, who continue to fund the program…
In its latest filing, NARUC and the other plaintiffs argued that unless the court directs the NRC to conduct its review, it will continue to avoid its legal obligations, and that billions of dollars will have been spent on one of the country’s most intractable problems, with no formal conclusion… http://energy.aol.com/2011/09/19/yucca-nuclear-waste-wars/

September 21, 2011 - Posted by | Legal, USA

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