Court sets schedule in Yucca case
WASHINGTON — A federal court on Friday set the schedule for a lawsuit that seeks to force the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to reopen its review of the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste site.
Plaintiffs headed by the attorneys general of Washington state and South Carolina have charged the NRC dragged its feet on licensing for the Nevada repository in violation of a three-year deadline set by Congress.
In the meantime, the Obama administration closed down the project. The NRC suspended its license review on Oct. 1, saying it no longer had money for it.
The lawsuit was filed in July, and the plaintiffs in September asked for it to be fast-tracked, which was granted in the court order Friday. The deadline for final legal briefs in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia was set for Feb. 13, with oral arguments to follow “on the first appropriate date.”