Saturday, September 20, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Yucca Mountain lawsuits rescheduled

WASHINGTON -- A federal court has set Jan. 14 as the new date for oral arguments in lawsuits challenging the Yucca Mountain Project, a Nevada official said Friday.

The cases will be argued before three judges representing the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit: David S. Tatel, who was appointed by President Clinton; Karen Henderson, seated by the first President George Bush, and Harry Edwards, an appointee of President Carter.

It is not yet clear how much time the judges will allocate to each of the four major lawsuits from the state, Clark County and the city of Las Vegas, according to Bob Loux, head of the state's Agency for Nuclear Projects.

Also part of the proceedings is a Nuclear Energy Institute lawsuit contesting radiation standards for the proposed repository set by the Environmental Protection Agency.

The lawsuits had been scheduled to be heard on Oct. 3, but were pulled from the docket in August and reclassified as "complex" cases.

"I'm relieved we have a court date and not one that's way out there in the future," Loux said.

The lawsuits challenge actions taken by the EPA, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Energy Department that led to President Bush's declaration in February 2002 that Yucca Mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas, is suitable for burial of radioactive spent fuel from commercial power plants.

The state also has declared in a lawsuit that Bush's declaration and a follow-up resolution approved by Congress violated Nevada's rights under the U.S. Constitution.