[ RadSafe ] Appeals court: Federal agency violating law on Yucca nuke site

[Strickert, Rick (Consultant)]

Excerpted from an August 13, 2013, Fox News story, "Appeals court: Federal agency violating law on Yucca nuke site"  (http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/08/13/appeals-court-federal-agency-violating-law-on-yucca-nuke-site/):

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The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has been violating federal law by delaying a decision on a proposed nuclear waste dump in Nevada, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday. 

By a 2-1 vote, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ordered the commission to complete the licensing process and approve or reject the Energy Department's application for a waste site at Nevada's Yucca Mountain. 

In a sharply worded opinion, the court said the nuclear agency was "simply flouting the law" when it allowed the Obama administration to continue plans to close the proposed waste site 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.  The action goes against a federal law designating Yucca Mountain as the nation's nuclear waste repository. 

"The president may not decline to follow a statutory mandate or prohibition simply because of policy objections," Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh wrote in a majority opinion, which was joined Judge A. Raymond Randolph. Chief Judge Merrick B. Garland dissented in the case. 

"It is no overstatement to say that our constitutional system of separation of powers would be significantly altered if we were to allow executive and independent agencies to disregard federal law in the manner asserted in this case by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission," Kavanaugh wrote. 

A spokesman for the NRC said Tuesday the agency was reviewing the decision. He declined further comment.
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The court opinion is United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, August 13, 2013, No. 11-1271
IN RE: AIKEN COUNTY, ET AL., PETITIONERS
STATE OF NEVADA, INTERVENOR
(http://www.cadc.uscourts.gov/internet/opinions.nsf/BAE0CF34F762EBD985257BC6004DEB18/$file/11-1271-1451347.pdf)


Rick Strickert
Austin, TX