WASHINGTON -- An order for the Department of Energy to post to the Internet its draft license application for Yucca Mountain was appealed on Monday.

Staff members for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission challenged the reasoning of a three-judge panel that sought to clarify the definition of draft paperwork for the proposed nuclear waste repository.

The judges said the Energy Department's 5,800-page draft license document met the definition and was required to be disclosed.

The NRC staff based its appeal on legal and technical grounds involving the order. It said it was not siding for or against the Department of Energy on the merits. The distinction was made because the NRC is supposed to stay neutral on Yucca Mountain for now.

Meanwhile Monday evening, attorneys for DOE were putting the finishing touches on an appeal of their own that was to be filed later that night, department spokesman Allen Benson said.

The appeals, filed with the commissioners who oversee the NRC, ratchet up the legal dispute initiated by the state of Nevada over access to Yucca Mountain documents.

State attorneys argued they were entitled to a copy of the draft license application as part of a cache of more than 3 million Yucca Mountain documents the Energy Department is posting to a special electronic network as part of the licensing process.

Nevada officials said the document is expected to contain clues as to whether the Energy Department can argue that Yucca Mountain is a safe location for nuclear waste disposal.

The document reportedly contains about 70 chapters consisting of analysis models and reports laying out the government's repository plan.

Lawyers for the Energy Department resisted, arguing the license application in draft form did not fit the standards to be put on the electronic database.

In its appeal, the NRC staff said the ruling would create extra work for the agency because it would have to review whether it held additional documents that would need to be posted under the new definition of a draft.

The NRC has posted about 25,000 documents to the Internet.