Shoshone Nation files motion in Yucca case

Thursday, July 7, 2005 | 9:55 a.m.

The Western Shoshone Nation on Wednesday filed an opposition to a government motion to dismiss their case that seeks to stop work at the planned Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository.

Last May a federal judge denied the Western Shoshone Nation's preliminary injunction request seeking to stop work at the site. In the ruling, the judge requested that the government file a motion to dismiss on jurisdictional grounds, according to Wednesday's motion.

The government filed a motion to dismiss.

In its opposition to that motion, the Western Shoshone argued that the U.S. has never lawfully divested the tribe of its land or its rights under previously held treaties.

It also argued that it has standing to assert the collective rights of the Western Shoshone Nation and its people, "including the right to prohibit the use of Western Shoshone Territory for the storage of high level nuclear waste," according to the motion.

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