GROUPS CHALLENGE NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION’S PLAN FOR STORING NUCLEAR WASTE

By TONI ELLINGTON

Environmental groups filed two petitions in the U.S. District Court, District of Columbia Circuit last week challenging the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (“NRC)’s recent rules related to long-term nuclear waste storage.  One lawsuit was filed by the Natural Resources Defense Counsel.  A second lawsuit was filed by the following environmental groups:   Beyond Nuclear, Inc.; Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League, Inc.; Missouri Coalition for the Environment, Inc.; New England Coalition, Inc.; Nuclear Information and Resource Services, Inc.; Riverkeepers, Inc.; San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace, Inc.; Sustainable Energy and Economic Development Coalition, Inc.; and the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, Inc.  The groups claim the NRC’s rules violate the Environmental Policy Act and the Atomic Energy Act.

These lawsuits arose from a ruling from the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in 2012 which threw out the legal framework for licensing new or existing plants.  In the past, the NRC was able to issue new licenses for safe waste storage at existing locations.  However, the plans for a new waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, fell through, and there are no other long-term storage repositories for such waste.  Therefore, the court found in 2012 that the NRC could not automatically be confident of safe storage.  The NRC was ordered to study the issue and come up with new rules.  These new rules are now being challenged in the latest lawsuit filings.  The plaintiffs contend the NRC failed to comply with the 2012 court ruling.

The issue of safe disposal of radioactive spent fuel is at a critical point, as onsite storage casks or pools at many of the nation’s nuclear plants are at or near capacity.  At facilities like the Indian Point Energy Center in New York, which services 17 million people, the nuclear reactors are operating past or near their expiration dates.  In addition to these lawsuits, a similar suit was also filed this week by the states of New York, Connecticut, and Vermont in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

For more information, contact Toni Ellington at (504) 599-8500.