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That confidence game has been used against states, environmental groups, and concerned citizens for decades, blocking them from challening the generation of high-level radioactive waste in atomc reactor licensing proceedings, as the NRC has flippantly expressed “confidence” that storage on-site was safe for decades or even centuries, and that a geologic repository for permanently disposing of irradiated nuclear fuel was just over the horizon — despite mounting evidence to the contrary.

The court victory was won by a coalition, including state attorneys general from NY, NJ, VT, and CT, environmental groups Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League, NRDC, Riverkeeper, and Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, and D.C. attorney Diane Curran. In addition to Beyond Nuclear’s four intervention contentions, similar motions were filed on July 9th by environmental groups against another 30 applications for proposed new reactor construction/operating licenses, and degraded old reactor license extensions, across the U.S.

Ironically, the July 9th filings came on the 10th anniversary of the U.S. Senate’s 2002 60-39 vote to shove the Yucca Mountain radioactive waste dump down the State of Nevada’s throat, and the 8th anniversary of another D.C. Circuit ruling nullifying the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s misguided attempt to cut off radiation protection regulations at Yucca just 10,000 years after high-level radioactive waste burial there. Under court order, EPA was forced to admit that high-level radioactive waste is hazardous for a million years. Since 2009, fulfilling a campaign pledge to Nevadans, President Obama has zeroed out the funding for the Yucca dump, cancelling the unwise project targeted at Western Shoshone Indian Nation sacrsacred land (see photo, above left).

The Attorney General of the State of New York, Eric T. Schneiderman, a lead plaintiff in the recent court victory against NRC, stated in a press release “This decision means that the NRC cannot license or relicense any nuclear power plant — including the Indian Point facilities in Westchester County — until it examines the consequences of long-term on-site storage of nuclear waste.”…. http://www.beyondnuclear.org/radioactive-waste-whatsnew/2012/7/12/beyond-nuclear-files-nuke-waste-con-game-contentions-against.html