Hopefully Congress is not in the mood to take this up until after the elections....and let us pray after that Harry Reid is soon to be ex-senator by then.
Judges block Obama effort to close Yucca Mountain waste site
McClatchy Newspapers
The Obama administration has suffered a defeat in its efforts to close the nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada.
Three administrative judges within the Nuclear Regulatory Commission ruled last week that President Barack Obama and Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu don't have the authority to close the controversial site unilaterally. That can only be accomplished, the judges said, by an act of Congress.
"Unless Congress directs otherwise, DOE may not single-handedly derail the legislated decision-making process by withdrawing the (Yucca repository) application. DOE's motion must therefore be denied," the judges wrote, adding that the DOE had weakened its arguments by "conceding that the application is not flawed nor the (Yucca) site unsafe."
"Given the stated purposes of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act and the detailed structure of that legislation, it would be illogical to allow DOE to withdraw the application without any examination of the merits," the judges found.
...Republicans accuse Obama of moving to close the site to help Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., in his tough re-election battle....
The administrative judges' ruling already is scheduled for reconsideration. On Wednesday, the day after the ruling was announced, the NRC quickly set a schedule to hear an appeal, calling for follow-up briefs to be filed by July 16....If the NRC rules against the Energy Department, the agency can appeal to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. That appellate court is already adjudicating parallel litigation involving Nevada, South Carolina, Washington and other states with large amounts of high-level nuclear waste from past atomic weapons production.
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