Fight over New Mexico Nuclear Waste Plan Lands in DC Circuit

摘要

Opponents of a plan to ship highly radioactive nuclear waste from power plants across the U.S. to a site in rural New Mexico elevated their fight with a lawsuit against the federal regulators considering the plan. The Maryland-based group Beyond Nuclear claims in a petition for review filed in the D.C. Circuit that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission was wrong to push the group out of earlier regulatory proceedings where opponents tried to challenge a license application for the plan. A company called Holtec International has asked regulators for permission to build a storage facility for "high-level" nuclear waste in the Chihuahuan Desert region of southeastern New Mexico. Under the plan, the nation's growing stockpile of used-up nuclear power plant fuel would be shipped to the site and stored there, potentially for decades, until the U.S. finds a more permanent disposal solution.