Three Yucca lawsuits to be heard together

Monday, Nov. 11, 2002 | 9:46 a.m.

A federal appeals court last week agreed to hear three major Yucca Mountain nuclear repository lawsuits together.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia on Thursday agreed to have the same three-judge panel consider Nevada's three suits challenging Department of Energy plans to build a nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

Oral arguments on the cases are scheduled for September 2003 before the court.

The three lawsuits will remain separate but will be argued during the same week, the court said.

Nevada Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa praised the decision, saying it "bodes well for Nevada's success."

State officials wanted the same panel to hear all three lawsuits together rather than spreading them out over a period of months, said Joe Egan, a Virginia lawyer who heads Nevada's Yucca Mountain legal challenge.

Egan said the court's schedule could decide the legal merits of Yucca Mountain by the end of 2003.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission, in a related matter, is completing an investigation in the state's allegations that Nevada officials were shut out of Yucca Mountain meetings between the Energy Department and NRC staff.

NRC Chairman Richard Meserve is expected to receive the results of the investigation, an NRC spokeswoman said.

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