By Haley Hughes
An appeals court is putting off deciding whether to force the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to act on the Yucca Mountain site's long-pending license application.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit announced on Friday it will wait up to four months to rule on a petition ordering the NRC to approve or disapprove the application because the Commission reports it does not have sufficient funds to conduct a review.
The petition to the court - a writ of mandamus - seeking to compel NRC to act was filed last year by Aiken County.
Circuit Court Judge Brett Kavanaugh, in his concurring opinion, wrote, "The parties' submissions reveal that granting mandamus now would entail significant expenditures of government resources. But Congress's upcoming appropriations decisions would well affect whether those expenditures are necessary."
The court gave the NRC until ?Dec. 14 to report back whether Congress has allocated the funding the Commission says it needs, more than the $10.4 million it already has.
Aiken County filed the writ of mandamus in response to the Department of Energy's attempt to abandon the license application pending before NRC on the proposed repository for used nuclear waste. NRC received the application roughly three years ago, but has not yet ruled on it, even though the 1987 Nuclear Waste Policy Act says it is bound to determine if Yucca Mountain is suitable.
The parties that initiated the lawsuit have voiced concerns that, if the federal government abandons the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository, the only congressionally approved site for permanently disposing of the nation's spent nuclear waste will be lost.
Senior Circuit Court Judge A. Raymond Randolph dissented, writing, "Here, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has disregarded a clear statutory mandate, citing a lack of funding, when in fact it has sufficient funds to move forward. There is no reason to delay issuing a writ of mandamus to correct this transparent violation of the law. Holding the case is abeyance indefinitely, based on the mere possibility of future legislative action, shirks this basic obligation and perpetuates the Commission's unlawful delay."
Both proponents and opponents of Yucca Mountain are counting the court's decision as a win.
U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., issued a statement calling the court's decision a tremendous victory for South Carolina, as well as the rest of the nation.
"Although action should be taken before Dec. 14, the Court sent a very clear message to Congress and the Obama Administration: Continue the licensing review to open Yucca Mountain or we will issue a writ of mandamus and require immediate action," Wilson said. "It is my hope that the Commission will do the right thing and approve Yucca's application process prior to the Dec. 14 decision."
U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., stated he is "confident that in the coming months and years, we will craft a nuclear waste policy that keeps Americans safe and secure and restores trust that the government will not turn a deaf ear to the communities asked to undertake the burden of storing the nuclear energy industry's toxic waste."
Yucca Mountain was designed to hold about 77,000 tons of high-level waste, according to the NRC fact sheet.
Approximately 57,000 tons of commercial spent fuel are already in temporary storage at nuclear power plants across the country, including the Savannah River Site.
High-level nuclear waste consists primarily of spent fuel from commercial power plants and U.S. Navy reactors and certain waste generated by DOE during development of nuclear weapons.![]()
An appeals court is putting off deciding whether to force the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to act on the Yucca Mountain site's long-pending license application.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit announced on Friday it will wait up to four months to rule on a petition ordering the NRC to approve or disapprove the application because the Commission reports it does not have sufficient funds to conduct a review.
The petition to the court - a writ of mandamus - seeking to compel NRC to act was filed last year by Aiken County.
Circuit Court Judge Brett Kavanaugh, in his concurring opinion, wrote, "The parties' submissions reveal that granting mandamus now would entail significant expenditures of government resources. But Congress's upcoming appropriations decisions would well affect whether those expenditures are necessary."
The court gave the NRC until ?Dec. 14 to report back whether Congress has allocated the funding the Commission says it needs, more than the $10.4 million it already has.
Aiken County filed the writ of mandamus in response to the Department of Energy's attempt to abandon the license application pending before NRC on the proposed repository for used nuclear waste. NRC received the application roughly three years ago, but has not yet ruled on it, even though the 1987 Nuclear Waste Policy Act says it is bound to determine if Yucca Mountain is suitable.
The parties that initiated the lawsuit have voiced concerns that, if the federal government abandons the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository, the only congressionally approved site for permanently disposing of the nation's spent nuclear waste will be lost.
Senior Circuit Court Judge A. Raymond Randolph dissented, writing, "Here, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has disregarded a clear statutory mandate, citing a lack of funding, when in fact it has sufficient funds to move forward. There is no reason to delay issuing a writ of mandamus to correct this transparent violation of the law. Holding the case is abeyance indefinitely, based on the mere possibility of future legislative action, shirks this basic obligation and perpetuates the Commission's unlawful delay."
Both proponents and opponents of Yucca Mountain are counting the court's decision as a win.
U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., issued a statement calling the court's decision a tremendous victory for South Carolina, as well as the rest of the nation.
"Although action should be taken before Dec. 14, the Court sent a very clear message to Congress and the Obama Administration: Continue the licensing review to open Yucca Mountain or we will issue a writ of mandamus and require immediate action," Wilson said. "It is my hope that the Commission will do the right thing and approve Yucca's application process prior to the Dec. 14 decision."
U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., stated he is "confident that in the coming months and years, we will craft a nuclear waste policy that keeps Americans safe and secure and restores trust that the government will not turn a deaf ear to the communities asked to undertake the burden of storing the nuclear energy industry's toxic waste."
Yucca Mountain was designed to hold about 77,000 tons of high-level waste, according to the NRC fact sheet.
Approximately 57,000 tons of commercial spent fuel are already in temporary storage at nuclear power plants across the country, including the Savannah River Site.
High-level nuclear waste consists primarily of spent fuel from commercial power plants and U.S. Navy reactors and certain waste generated by DOE during development of nuclear weapons.