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The Department of Energy’s 2009 move to withdraw its permit application from consideration by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and therefore end the examination of Nevada’s Yucca Mountain site as a potential nuclear waste repository was denied by an NRC review board last week. In a 53-page ruling, NRC’s Atomic Safety & Licensing Board determined that Congress, by enacting the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 and amending it in 1987, had directed DOE to file a construction application for the Yucca Mountain repository. Consequently, the Obama Administration cannot “single-handedly derail” the legislative process, according to the board. It is likely, however, that the board’s decision will be reviewed by NRC as a whole. DOE and others also have the option to present the NRC decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, which already has a Yucca Mountain-related legal challenge pending. This related appeal was submitted by opponents of the DOE decision to cancel the repository. DOE has spent 20 years and $9 billion on characterizing the repository’s suitability and submitted an 8,600-page application to NRC in 2008 to move ahead with the site.
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