Yucca Mountain nuclear dump locked in court battle

By Cy Ryan

Monday, April 12, 2010 | 2:58 p.m.

CARSON CITY – President Obama has told his Department of Energy to stop developing the high-level nuclear dump at Yucca Mountain, but it’s not that simple.

A legal battle has developed with three locations filing suit to stop the withdrawal, arguing the Department of Energy doesn’t have the authority to close down the proposed dump in Southern Nevada.

Nevada and the Energy Department have joined to ask the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., to withhold any rulings on the suits until the administrative issues are settled before the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Nevada, represented by three private attorneys, filed a motion in federal court Monday asking it to deny motions to speed up consideration of whether the proposed dump can be shut down before it accepts any high-level nuclear waste.

Nuclear power plants in Aiken County, S.C., and Hanford, Wash., and the state of South Carolina have filed suit, asking the federal appeals court to speed up consideration of their claims and hold oral arguments in June.

They argue that a delay in a federal court ruling would put off the opening of Yucca Mountain and continue to expose residents in their areas to high level waste stored before any shipment.

The initial motion to close Yucca Mountain was made to the three-member Atomic Safety and Licensing Board, but it suspended all action on the application of the Energy Department. It said the court should act first.

The Energy Department says the licensing board should be forced to act and the case should eventually be decided by the parent Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The department said the licensing board “abdicates its obligation to rule on critical motions properly pending before it – namely, DOE’s motion to withdraw its license application” and five petitions by groups that oppose the closure.

Bruce Breslow, executive director of the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects, says the closure must go through a legal process. Asked why Obama just doesn’t withhold funds from the project, Breslow said it is Congress that plays a major role in the funding.

Breslow predicted that any decision by Congress on withholding money won’t be made until after the November election.

Nevada is represented by Martin Malsch, John Lawrence and Charles Fitzpatrick of the law firm of Egan, Fitzpatrick, Malsch & Lawrence of San Antonio, Texas.