DOE seeks prompt ruling on plan to retract Yucca repository application

WASHINGTON -- The Department of Energy on Monday appealed to nuclear regulators for a prompt ruling on whether it can retract an application to build a waste repository at Yucca Mountain.

DOE attorneys asked the leaders of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to step in and reverse an agency decision that keeps alive the application process until a federal court takes up the matter.

A three-judge board within the regulatory commission decided last week to put off hearings on whether DOE could withdraw its license application. Three lawsuits that have been consolidated in the U.S. Court of Appeals challenge DOE's authority to terminate the Yucca Mountain project without action by Congress.

In an 11-page appeal to NRC commissioners, DOE said that by delaying its decision, the three-judge panel "abdicates its obligation" to decide a case on which it has expertise.