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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Court orders work to continue on Yucca repository

Says NRC, Obama administration can’t flout Congress

The federal government must resume work on the Yucca Mountain repository in Nevada that would store the high-level nuclear waste from Hanford and other sites around the country, a federal appeals court said today. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Obama administration lack the legal authority to override Congress, which ordered the repository built in 2002, the federal appeals court said. Washington state, which is the home to an estimated 56 million gallons of highly toxic nuclear waste from the production of nuclear warheads at Hanford, had joined the lawsuit against the commission. Along with South Carolina and some residents of the Tri-Cities, Washington sought a writ of mandamus, or order from the court for the federal government to follow the law. In a 2-1 decision, the appeals court said the commission had no right to disregard the law and suspend the process for licensing the repository, that was planned for an area deep in Yucca Mountain, Nevada. “This ruling is great news for Washington state—especially residents in the Tri-Cities area near the Hanford Nuclear Reservation—who have been waiting for this project to move forward,” State Attorney General Bob Ferguson said in a statement announcing the decision. Federal law called for the NRC to either approve or reject a license application for a proposed waste repository within three years. The U.S. Department of Energy applied for a license for Yucca Mountain in 2008, and Congress appropriated at least $11 million for the process. The deadline passed without a decision. “By it’s own admission, the Commission has no intention of complying with the law,” the court said in its majority opinion. “Rather, the Commission has simply shut down its review.” Completion of a permanent home for the nation’s high-level nuclear waste has taken on heightened concern in Washington in recent months with reports from the Energy Department that a double walled tank with highly radioactive sludge and liquids are believed to be leaking at Hanford.