YUCCA SUPPORTERS: DOJ POSITION CONTRADICTS SEPARATION OF POWERS

Petitioners looking to force the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to resume Yucca Mountain licensing say that a recent Justice Department argument in the case contradicts the separation of powers doctrine. DOJ filed a brief last month in a case challenging the NRC’s Yucca Mountain closeout, arguing that the agency did not have sufficient funding to complete the review and that it was uncertain if Congress would appropriate more. “If accepted, this position would do irreparable harm to the separation of powers by giving the Executive carte blanche to ignore statutory duties on the basis of speculation regarding future funding,” states a brief filed Friday in the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit by petitioners including Washington State, South Carolina and the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners.