Lawsuit seeks decision on Yucca Mountain nuke waste dump

Two states and a group of utility regulators want a federal court to compel the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to rule on the Obama administration’s attempt to scuttle the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump.

Their lawsuit Friday also asks the court to force the NRC to revive its review of the Energy Department’s license application for Yucca, which the administration is trying to withdraw.

The lawsuit by the states of South Carolina and Washington, the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners and other parties is the latest twist in the legally and politically volatile battle over the planned Nevada waste site.

The lawsuit filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit states:

Although the [Nuclear Waste Policy Act] mandates that NRC ‘shall consider’ the license application, NRC has unreasonably and unlawfully withheld its consideration by (a) withholding its decision regarding DOE’s motion to withdraw and (b) terminating its staff’s technical review of the license application and allowing effective suspension of the adjudication before the [Atomic Safety and Licensing Board].

South Carolina and Washington both are home to Energy Department nuclear sites that contain high-level radioactive waste, and the petition also notes that the utility regulators have an interest in the federal government following through on its commitment to take and store spent fuel piling up at the nation’s nuclear reactors.

“NARUC members, many located within 10-40 miles of working reactors, have recognized statutory charges to protect the health, safety, and economic interests of electric ratepayers who have already paid, through rates, more than $17 billion into the Nuclear Waste Fund, in part, to support the process of reviewing a permanent repository,” the lawsuit states.

The new lawsuit against the NRC comes a month after the same court tossed a lawsuit against the Energy Department for trying to nix the Yucca Project.

The court, in dismissing that lawsuit, said it was premature because NRC was still weighing the Energy Department’s attempt to withdraw its license application for the Yucca project.