A federal judge in Idaho will allow the U.S. government to file up to 30 pages in a motion to dismiss a March lawsuit by Butte County, which claims the Department of Energy has avoided adequate economic payments to the locality while using Idaho National Laboratory as a “default repository” for nuclear waste.
“Plaintiff may likewise file a memorandum of points and authorities in opposition to defendants’ motion to dismiss of up to 30 pages,” Chief U.S. District Court David Nye for the Idaho District said in a ruling dated Wednesday May 17.
The Justice Department motion was not opposed by Butte County, according to the filing, which did not say when the document might be filed.
The reply briefs will be shorter, 15 pages, the judge said in the order. If both parties consent, the case might be expedited by allowing a federal magistrate judge to oversee the litigation, Judge Nye said in a notice to the county and the federal government.
In its lawsuit filed in March, Butte County said DOE continues to use Idaho National Laboratory as a repository for naval nuclear waste and other spent fuel relocated to the lab years ago from the Three-Mile Island-2 reactor meltdown site in Pennsylvania. But while the lab is home to 325 metric tons of spent fuel, DOE is not providing “impact payments” to the community as envisioned under the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982, according to the suit.
At the same time, the county lawsuit argues, DOE is offering payments to communities merely willing to discuss the idea of becoming an interim storage site for spent nuclear fuel.
