Saturday, September 04, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Court lets Yucca ruling stand

Appeal denied on radiation safety guideline

WASHINGTON -- A federal court ruling that struck a blow against the Yucca Mountain Project will become effective on Wednesday after judges this week refused to take a second look at the case.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia said it will not reconsider the Yucca matter on appeal from the Nuclear Energy Institute.

The ruling formalizes a significant action the court took in July. A three-judge panel threw out a key 10,000-year radiation safety guideline for the nuclear waste repository that the Energy Department proposes to build in Nevada.

The July 9 court decision has thrown the Yucca project into uncertainty just months before DOE plans to file a repository license application with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

The appeals court issued a pair of one-sentence orders Wednesday denying the NEI appeal. They came as little surprise as court officials had signaled such motions to reconsider are rarely granted.

For the same reason, the latest legal development also will have little practical impact, said Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev.

"The court already ruled that the radiation standards for Yucca established under (President) Bush are not based on science and will not protect Nevada families, and this only validates that decision," Berkley said.

The judicial panel said in July that its decision would become effective seven days after it disposed of appeals.

The NEI, the government relations arm of the nuclear industry, is considering whether to take the case to the U.S. Supreme Court, spokeswoman Melanie Lyons said Friday. The deadline for an appeal is Nov. 29.

Berkley renewed a call for Bush to halt the Yucca project, invoking a pledge he made in Las Vegas on Aug. 12 to "stand by the decisions of the courts and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission."

"Now is the time for President Bush to live up to his promise to obey any court decision on Yucca and order the Energy Department to stop its work on a license for a nuclear dump in Nevada," she said.

The appeals court issued a series of rulings July 9, most of them upholding the repository. But the judges declared the project's 10,000 year radiation protection standard invalid. As possible remedies, the court suggested a new guideline might be formed or Congress might pass a law to solve the problem.

The Bush administration declined to appeal the court ruling. Energy Department spokesman Joe Davis said DOE will work to meet new radiation standards that will to comply with the court ruling.