Nevada AG brings new challenge to Yucca Mountain waste site News
Nevada AG brings new challenge to Yucca Mountain waste site

[JURIST] Nevada Attorney General Brian Sandoval [official website] has challenged a Nuclear Regulatory Commission [official website] decision on regulations for the proposed nuclear waste site at Yucca Mountain [official project website], adding to a rash of litigation that has stalled the project for years. Sandoval's office on Thursday filed a suit over the NRC's refusal to consider its petition to alter a regulation that assumes a nuclear waste site will be open by 2025. The Department of Energy [official website] has been preparing an application to have the site licensed by the NRC, and Sandoval claimed the regulation made it more likely that the application would be approved without considering its merits. The regulation does not reference Yucca Mountain specifically, but it is the only site being considered by DOE. The suit is the eighth to challenge the project, which has remained bogged down since DOE received a green light to proceed in 2002. Read a Nevada Attorney General press release [PDF text] on the suit. The Las Vegas Review-Journal has more.