CMRR LAWSUIT APPEAL DENIED

The Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals Monday upheld a lower court ruling that the National Nuclear Security Administration’s environmental review of the Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement-Nuclear Facility was adequate under federal law. Given the Obama Administration’s decision in February to indefinitely defer the project, it was a hollow victory for the NNSA in the lawsuit brought by the Los Alamos Study Group. But the court found that the NNSA’s actions in previous years to complete a “Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement,” updating a previous 2003 review, were sufficient to meet the requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act, as long as construction on the project had not already begun. The Study Group had contended that the agency had already made a de facto decision to proceed with the project prior to the SEIS completion.