Oral arguments set in fight over Yucca

Suzanne Struglinski

Thursday, Sept. 18, 2003 | 10:19 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Oral arguments for the state's legal fight against the Energy Department and its proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump are set for Jan. 14, according to the clerk of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

The clerk called Joe Egan, the attorney hired by the state to handle the legal challenges, late Wednesday night to tell him of the new date.

Egan and attorneys from his firm Egan, Fitzpatrick and Malsch, will argue several cases brought by the state challenging various aspects of the Yucca Mountain project.

Located about 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, the site is the potential federal repository for 77,000 tons of nuclear waste. Congress and President Bush approved the storage site last year and the department anticipates submitting a license application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in December 2004.

Egan said the almost four-month delay in starting the oral arguments will not make much difference in the case and will not affect the legal costs for the state. The briefs are done and the firm is almost completely ready, he said.

"It is much more important that we got on the complex docket," Egan said.

Last month the court postponed the Oct. 3 date and reclassified the case as "complex." The court designates only a few cases this way each year.

Because of the reclassification, both sides will get longer time to aruge the cases. Egan said he is waiting to find out if the court has granted a full-day for each side yet.

Nevada has sued the department over the environmental impact statement, the recommendation and the guidelines used to determine the site's suitability to hold the waste. These cases have been lumped together with challenges against the Environmental Protection Agency's radiation standards for the site and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's rules for licensing the it. A constitutional challenge against the site filed in January is also part of this case.

Judges Harry Edwards, Karen Lecraft Henderson and David Tatel will review the case.

Egan said he is "particularly thrilled" to have those judges on the case based on their past performances.