Friday, September 02, 2005
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

YUCCA MOUNTAIN: State adds to lawsuits against project

Filing marks at least the eighth legal case that Nevada has pressed in recent years

WASHINGTON -- Attorneys for Nevada returned to federal court on Thursday to file a new lawsuit on Yucca Mountain.

The state charged in legal papers that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission acted improperly when it declined this month to consider changing one of its nuclear waste regulations.

Attorney General Brian Sandoval said the NRC's "waste confidence rule" prejudges the completion of the proposed Nevada waste repository and will influence officials when they decide whether to license the project.

"For an ostensibly impartial regulator to make that prejudgment is simply unlawful," Sandoval said. "Frankly, it's also appalling public policy."

The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. It marked at least the eighth legal case the state has pressed in recent years related to the government's efforts to build a high-level nuclear waste center in Nevada.

The waste confidence regulation, written in 1990, guides the NRC's consideration of power plant extensions and waste storage permits.

For purposes of streamlining the process, the regulation assumes that an underground repository will be open by 2025 to handle waste generated by nuclear facilities. Although it does not mention Yucca Mountain, that is the only waste site being developed.

Nevada attorneys petitioned the NRC in March to change the rule, arguing that Yucca Mountain flaws makes it improbable that the government will have a repository ready by 2025.

But as long at the waste confidence rule remained on the books, they contended, the nuclear agency could be pressured to approve the Yucca site.

The state's lawsuit asks judges to direct the NRC to revise its regulations.

The NRC rejected Nevada's request on Aug. 10. Sandoval said that, to his knowledge, it was the first time the agency had rejected a rulemaking petition outright without seeking public comment.

"It shows how afraid they are of having a level playing field for Yucca," Sandoval said. "They're bending over backward to ram this project through, and we're confident the court will see through it."

NRC attorneys had not reviewed the lawsuit yet and the agency had no immediate comment on it, spokesman Dave McIntyre said. He confirmed that it was rare, if not unprecedented, for the NRC to reject a petition without inviting public reaction first.

In rejecting Nevada's petition, the NRC said the state had misinterpreted the regulation. Opening it up for reconsideration "would not be a prudent use of the agency's limited resources," the agency said.

The commission said it was committed to a "fair and comprehensive" review of Yucca Mountain that would not be affected by the regulation.