The state of Texas’ lawsuit demanding that the U.S. government take significant steps toward permanent storage of the nation’s nuclear waste has already been overtaken by events under the Trump administration, federal attorneys argued last week.
For that and other reasons, the state’s lawsuit should be denied, according to separate motions for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Energy and Treasury departments.
The lawsuit, filed in March in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, made a large number of demands. But its primary intent is for a court order that the three federal agencies complete the process for NRC licensing of the Yucca Mountain geologic repository for nuclear waste in Nevada, as directed in the 1987 amendment to the 1982 Nuclear Waste Policy Act.
In May, the Trump administration issued a budget proposal that for fiscal 2018 would provide $110 million for Yucca licensing activities at DOE and another $30 million at the NRC. That makes Texas’ demand that NRC request congressional funding for its review of the Energy Department license application moot, the regulator said in a June 29 filing.
The agency also said Texas is misreading a 2013 ruling from the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals that required the NRC to consider the Yucca Mountain application, which the Obama administration DOE at the time had abandoned. The ruling directed the NRC to “continue with the legally mandated process,” not to “complete” the licensing review, according to the agency’s new filing. The D.C. Circuit is also the correct venue for this matter, it added.
Department of Justice attorneys, representing Treasury and DOE, made some similar arguments in their own June 29 response, noting again that Texas’ lawsuit takes aim at the Obama administration’s policy on Yucca, rather than that of its successor.
“While Texas’ frustration with the lengthy and intermittent process for siting a permanent repository under … is apparent, the Petition is the wrong method to achieve that result,” according to the DOJ.
