Nevada wants court to force NRC to reconsider Yucca Mt. ruling

Washington (Platts)--1Sep2005

Nevada has asked a federal appeals court to order NRC to reconsider the
state's petition seeking a change in NRC's Waste Confidence rule. The 1990
rule says the commission is confident that spent fuel can be safely stored in
casks at reactor sites for 100 years and that irradiated fuel will be moved to
a geologic repository by 2025. Nevada has been fighting the repository DOE
plans to build at Yucca Mountain. The state argued in a complaint it filed
today with the U.S. Appeals Court in Washington, D.C. that NRC's recent denial
of the state petition was unlawful, according to Joseph Egan, an attorney for
Nevada. The state maintains the 2025 date is "arbitrary and capricious" and
that DOE will not have a repository ready by then, he said. Separately, Nevada
Senior Deputy Attorney General Marta Adams said the state would closely
monitor NRC and Environmental Protection Agency regulation developments for a
Yucca Mountain repository, indicating legal action on that front was possible
if the agencies did not change their two-tiered approach.

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