Attorneys for Washington State looking to force the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to complete the Yucca Mountain licensing review are using recent comments by Department of Energy and NRC officials to bolster their court case. The NRC has argued that the licensing case cannot go forward because DOE has pulled its application, and that the process could only resume with DOE’s “full participation.” However, an April 6 letter to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit from Rob McKenna of the Office of the Attorney General of Washington notes that DOE Secretary Steven Chu said in Congressional testimony last month that DOE “will abide” if the Court tells the NRC to complete licensing, an argument that would put the matter within the Court’s jurisdiction.
Washington is part of a petition to the Court hoping to compel the NRC to finish the review it halted in late 2010, and in the letter attorneys brought up several developments since initial briefs were filed. It cites a letter sent last month by NRC Chairman Gregory Jaczko to Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), in which Jaczko said that there is “no formal contingency plan” for resuming licensing, adding “With the continuing passage of time our ability to promptly re-engage in this work becomes more limited.” But in briefs filed with the court, NRC attorneys have argued that the agency would be in a position to restart licensing if it was provided with Congressional funding. Oral arguments in the case are scheduled for May 2.