Legal « nuclear-news

Challenge to Wyoming uranium mining project

Uranium Mining Environmental Consequences to Be Reviewed in Court, Switchboard, by Geoffrey Fettus, 14 May 12, For decades, uranium has been mined in ways that damage our waters and land, put our communities at risk, and cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars in clean-up costs.

Now, for the first time in years, the environmental community has the chance to make its case before one of the crucial federal regulators on how we can do better. The stakes are high – especially for Western communities and their groundwater.

Last fall, NRDC and our Wyoming colleagues at the Powder River Basin Resources Council (PRBRC) challenged the proposed licensing of a planned uranium mine in Crook County, Wyoming. The mine would use a process known as “in-situ leach” mining. This method combines the mining and milling of uranium into a single step, by leaching uranium and other heavy metals off the surface of uranium-bearing rock in place.

Instead of actually digging up the uranium ore, in other words, this process extracts uranium by injecting water mixed with base solution into the rock formation in an underground aquifer, to dissolve the uranium from its host rock. The uranium-laden water flows into underground production wells and, from there, is pumped to the surface and piped to a centralized facility, which extracts the uranium.

We have written about the regulatory system and its numerous inadequacies . If you are really interested, I encourage you to read it. In brief, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is the main licensing body for in-situ leach uranium mining. We are challenging that body’s decision to issue a license for the Wyoming mine. Continue reading →

May 17, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Legal, Reference, Uranium, USA | Leave a comment

Legal battle over Yucca nuclear waste plan

Yucca lives? Nuclear waste dump not dead yet. Vegas Review Journal, 7 May 12 “…..Last week, a federal appeals court heard arguments on whether the Nuclear Regulatory Commission broke the law when it stopped moving forward with a licensing plan for the potential nuclear waste dump 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas…

… The case before a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of
Columbia involved a lawsuit filed by states – including Washington and South Carolina – that seek to get rid of nuclear waste currently being stored at power plants within their boundaries.

At issue is whether the Obama administration overstepped its authority by canceling the Yucca Mountain Project in 2009, leading the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to abandon licensing hearings.

The states argue that Congress has never repealed the 1982 legislation that created the project – known here as the Screw Nevada bill – so the process must go forward by law…… A ruling is expected later this year. Perhaps the judges will agree that Congress has essentially acted by refusing to appropriate funds for the endeavor in the current budget year. If not, the Yucca Mountain battle may continue.
http://www.lvrj.com/opinion/yucca-lives-nuclear-waste-dump-not-dead-yet-150557735.html

May 10, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Legal, USA | Leave a comment

Court hearing about Yucca Mountain radioactive waste plan

Federal appeals court hears arguments on plan to close Yucca Mountain nuclear dump, Washington Post, By Associated Press,May 2 WASHINGTON — Supporters of a proposed nuclear waste dump in Nevada urged a federal appeals court Wednesday to force the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to move forward on a licensing plan for the long-delayed project…

.. Washington state and South Carolina are among those that filed a lawsuit seeking to force the NRC to rule on the Yucca Mountain application. A decision is expected later this
year. http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/federal-appeals-court-hears-arguments-on-plan-to-close-yucca-mountain-nuclear-dump/2012/05/02/gIQA5iirwT_story.html

May 3, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Legal, USA | Leave a comment

Legal action for more scrutiny of nuclear license renewal process

The environmental group’s legal filing also criticizes Ameren for what it says is the company’s “inadequate discussion” of wind energy as an alternative to continued use of nuclear power in its required environmental reviews for the
renewal request

Environmentalists contest Ameren nuclear renewal, Bloomberg, By ALAN SCHER ZAGIER, 27 April 12, COLUMBIA, MO.A Missouri environmental group is asking the federal government to more closely scrutinize Ameren Corp.’s request for a 20-year license renewal at the state’s only nuclear power plant.

The Missouri Coalition for the Environment on Tuesday filed a legal
objection to the utility’s plan with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory
Commission. The coalition wants the federal agency to hold a formal
public hearing on Ameren’s license renewal application, a move that
would likely delay consideration of the request. Ameren’s current
40-year operating license for the Callaway County plant expires in
2024…….
The nuclear agency has given Ameren and other U.S. nuclear reactor
operators a deadline of February 2013 to submit updated seismic
studies and complete another safety plan sought in the immediate
aftermath of the Japanese disaster, with a December 2016 deadline to
put those improvements in place….
Curran said the license renewal shouldn’t happen until Ameren provides
the government those requested plans. The St. Louis-based utility
submitted its license renewal application for the nuclear plant late
last year.

“The decision on a license renewal should be delayed until all of this
information is in,” she said….. The environmental group’s legal filing also criticizes Ameren for what it says is the company’s “inadequate discussion” of wind energy as an alternative to continued use of nuclear power in its required environmental reviews for the
renewal request. http://www.businessweek.com/ap/2012-04/D9UCLVKG1.htm

April 28, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Legal, USA | Leave a comment

90 cancer victims bring lawsuit against nuclear companies

Radioactive: Revelations on nuclear plants sound a warning http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/opinion/editorials/radioactive-revelations-on-nuclear-plants-sound-a-warning-633299/ April 27, 2012 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Like a dark family secret long suspected but never confirmed, the shock of discovery is all the more lurid for coming into the light
years later. So it is with the news of radioactive material released into the air — at levels higher than any seen in the nation — at closed nuclear fuels plants in Armstrong County.

Incredulity feeds the first reaction: Surely this could not have happened. But apparently it
did, according to good authority. That would be Joseph P. Ring, a Harvard University radiation safety officer who teaches at Harvard and the University of Massachusetts. He
wrote a 37-page report that was filed Tuesday as part of federal lawsuits brought against plant operators Babcock & Wilcox Co. and Atlantic Richfield Co. by about 90 cancer victims. Continue reading →

April 27, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | health, Legal, USA | Leave a comment

Appeals Court hearing of call to block license for Georgia nuclear power plants

Southern Nuclear Power Plant Foes Ask Court to Block License Bloomberg, By Andrew Harris, Brian Wingfield and Tom Schoenberg – Apr 18, 2012 Southern Co. (SO)’s license from the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission. to build two nuclear power plants in Georgia should be blocked, opponents of the project said in a U.S. appeals court filing.

The NRC rejected a request by nine environmental groups that it halt construction at the two facilities on April 16, setting the stage for today’s filing with the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington. The agency approved the license on Feb. 9 by a 4-1 vote

“Issuance of a stay is in the public interest,” the groups said in their filing today, arguing that that NRC failed to fully consider lessons learned from Japan’s Fukushima Dai- Ichi power plant disaster caused by a March 2011 earthquake and tsunami. Continue reading →

April 19, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Legal, USA | Leave a comment

Taxpayers have to take legal action to get the facts on safety of nuclear facilities

Why Do Taxpayers Have to Sue to Get Oversight of Nuclear Facilities? http://pogoblog.typepad.com/pogo/2012/04/why-do-taxpayers-have-to-sue-to-get-oversight-of-nuclear-facilities.html Project on Government Oversight, (POGO) By ANA LIEBELSON, 13 April 12,

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has just released the Performance Evaluation Reports (PER) for its eight nuclear weapons sites. But that’s only thanks to the activist group Nuclear Watch New Mexico, who filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for a FY2009 PER for Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), and then sued the agency for the report’s release after its request was denied.

The NNSA went ahead and gave Nuke Watch the FY2011 PERs that the group had also asked for through FOIA. These kinds of oversight reports are invaluable to the public, and we shouldn’t have to endure years of litigation to get them. Continue reading →

April 14, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Legal, USA | Leave a comment

Florida rebellion of ratepayers against “Nuclear Cost Recovery”

Florida AARP joins suit to overturn nuclear fees to utilities, Tampa Bay Times, By Ivan Penn, Times April 13, 2012 Florida’s largest nonpartisan, nonprofit senior organization joined a lawsuit Thursday to overturn a state law that requires utility customers to pay in advance for new nuclear plants.

In opposing the advance nuclear fee, the Florida AARP said many of its members already face difficulty meeting rising utility costs on their low and fixed incomes. To add fees for proposed nuclear plants that might never get built, the organization said, is an undue burden. “During this period of economic hardship, the rising cost to provide current electric utility service is severe enough to raise alarm,” the AARP stated in a brief to the Florida Supreme Court.

The AARP submitted the brief in support of a lawsuit filed by the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, an advocate for energy efficiency and clean energy…..
http://www.tampabay.com/news/business/energy/florida-aarp-joins-suit-to-overturn-nuclear-fees-to-utilities/1224791

The new Florida reactor projects are clearly in trouble, plagued with cost overruns and expensive delays. This increases the likelihood that the projects will not be completed,

Officials: Backlash Spreading in Florida Against “Nuclear Cost Recovery” Financing Scheme for Proposed Reactors Unlikely to Ever Be Built Market Watch, JACKSONVILLE, Fla., April 12, 2012 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ — No Refund Rip-off for Consumers: Bipartisan Filings in Legal Challenge Before the Florida Supreme Court and Growing Local Opposition Spells Big Trouble For Tapping Ratepayers for 4 Nuclear Reactors That Are Unneeded, Unaffordable and Unsafe.

Florida ratepayers are not rolling over for the major utilities that want to pick their wallets in advance for new nuclear reactors that may never actually be constructed.

State and local officials made it clear today that bipartisan opposition continues to grow in Florida to the controversial use of so-called “nuclear cost recovery” (NCR) to force ratepayers in the state to pay in advance for costs associated with four Progress Energy
of Florida (PEF) and Florida Power & Light (FPL) nuclear reactors that are increasingly unlikely to ever be built. Continue reading →

April 13, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Legal, USA | Leave a comment

Nuclear power company pays investors $450,000 to settle accusations of fraud

Settlement reached in nuclear project lawsuit, The Spokesman Review, By ALEX MORRELL, Associated Press, 9 April 12, BOISE, Idaho — The head of a company seeking to build a nuclear power plant in Idaho has agreed to pay $450,000 to resolve a lawsuit with a group of angry investors.

Shareholders of Alternate Energy Holdings Inc. in late 2010 sued the company, Chief Executive Officer Don Gillispie and Vice President Jennifer Ransom, claiming they schemed to mislead investors about their compensation and manipulated the company’s trading value. Continue reading →

April 11, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Legal, USA | Leave a comment

France wants to be sure of not being liable for nuclear accidents, in selling nukes to India

According to the new Rules of the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damages Act, the foreign suppliers of nuclear material to Indian nuclear power plants would not be held liable for accidents caused by defective or faulty equipment supplied by them if the accident takes place after a guarantee period specified by them

France waits for India to clarify N-liability framework IBN LiveNew Delhi, 5 April 12, : In the midst of the run-up to the French presidential elections, France has been in dialogue with India to clarify issues relating to the nuclear liability law, and is waiting for New Delhi to establish the legal framework before signing commercial contracts for setting up atomic reactors. Continue reading →

April 6, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | France, India, Legal | Leave a comment

Britain’s nuclear test veterans continuing their case in the courts

our case is still live and on going .We have one case still proceeding to High Court another 1002 not yet statute barred and hearing before a Judge of almost 20 pension appeal cases

A Message from the Nuclear Veterans, Paul Langley’s Nuclear History Blog, Dennis Hayden, 5 April 12, THE DUST HAS SETTLED FOLLOWING THE SUPREME COURT DECISION. THE UK CASE IS STILL ON GOING & UK MINISTERS’ JOY WILL BE SHORT LIVED ”…… the Government and nuclear industry will do everything in their power to keep the UK Atomic Veterans Claimants case from a full court hearing on causation . Continue reading →

April 5, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Legal, UK | 1 Comment

Australian Aboriginal takes legal action against planned huge uranium mine

Environmental Defenders Office (SA) Inc, 22 March 12, Mr Kevin Buzzacott has filed an application in the Federal Court challenging the Commonwealth Environment Minister’s approval of the Olympic Dam expansion. He is represented by the Environmental Defender’s Office (SA) Inc (EDO) in those proceedings.

Mr Buzzacott (known as Uncle Kevin) is an Aboriginal Elder of the Arabunna Nation in Northern South Australia, who is concerned about the impacts of the mine on the environment. Continue reading →

March 22, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | AUSTRALIA, Legal | Leave a comment

Court action over inadequate environmental assessment of nuclear reactor plans

They also note that the government didn’t select a specific type of nuclear reactor, making its possible impact difficult to assess.

Environmentalists challenge Ont. nuclear plan in court The Canadian Press, Mar. 21, 2012 TORONTO — A group of environmentalists has gone to court to challenge Ontario’s plan to build new nuclear reactors, arguing the environmental risks and costs involved haven’t been properly assessed. Continue reading →

March 22, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Canada, Legal | Leave a comment

Earth Justice and native peoples fight to save Grand Canyon from uranium mining

Uranium Industry Attack on Grand Canyon, Earth Justice 17 MARCH 2012, Yet another toxic mining threat “……..The new foes of protecting the Grand Canyon region look a lot like Mr. Cameron. They are uranium miners who’ve staked thousands of claims ringing the national park.

Uranium mining has left a toxic legacy in the area, polluting water that run through the Park, which has prompted the Park Service to warn hikers not to drink the water of certain streams, iincluding Horn Creek . (New mines are supposed to be better and cleaner. But the water pollution threatened by the “modern” flooded mines shows otherwise.)

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar stood up for protecting the lands around the national park, putting a million acres off limits to new mining claims.

The uranium industry, like Mr. Cameron, doesn’t like protecting the Grand Canyon . And like Mr. Cameron, they are attacking not only the Grand Canyon protection measures, but also the Interior Secretary’s authority to protect lands. (Industry claims the Interior Department can’t protect more than 5,000 acres at a time from uranium mining claims.)

This time, Earthjustice and our clients – the Havasupai Tribe , Grand Canyon Trust , Center for Biological Diversity , Sierra Club , and National Parks Conservation Association – will be fighting to protect the Grand Canyon. (We filed legal papers to formally intervene in the first of three industry suits last week.)

If history is going to repeat itself, with miners hoping to degrade wildlife habitat, waters and one of America’s natural wonders for profit, we’ll work to ensure the courts again recognize the Canyon’s majesty and again reject the miner’s attacks. http://earthjustice.org/blog/2012-march/uranium-industry-attack-on-grand-canyon

March 19, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Legal, Uranium, USA | Leave a comment

Legal challenge to India’s nuclear liability law

“The Act channels all the liability to the nuclear operator [now the government itself], and the victims are not allowed to sue companies supplying reactors and other materials.”

the Act was passed because the U.S., France and Russia, with which India had signed nuclear deals, pressured the government to buy expensive reactors from their suppliers.

Supreme Court to examine constitutional validity of nuclear civil liability law THE HINDU, 17 March 12, J. VENKATESAN The Supreme Court will examine the constitutional validity of the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act, 2010, which limits the liability of an operator in the event of a nuclear disaster to Rs. 1,500 crore. Continue reading →