On Monday, 17 anti-nuclear groups said they are preparing to file a federal court challenge if a recent Nuclear Regulatory Commission decision on waste storage at power plants takes effect.
The NRC had suspended final decisions on new nuclear plant licenses and license renewals following a 2012 court ruling that the agency hadn't adequately studied a waste decision it made two years earlier. That decision allowed nuclear plants to store waste for 60 years after their licenses expire, up from 30 years. Following an environmental analysis, a majority of NRC commissioners recently voted in favor of a new rule that found the waste could be housed safely at plants' dry-storage facilities indefinitely.
The ruling allows licensing decisions to move forward in the absence of the Yucca Mountain repository project abandoned by the Obama administration. Groups that include Beyond Nuclear and the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy contend that federal regulations bar the NRC from issuing licenses unless plans for a geologic repository are in place. They also argue that further environmental and economic studies of spent fuel disposal should be required.
Unless its opponents are successful in persuading a court to intervene, the rule (renamed from "waste confidence" to "continued storage") will be effective Oct. 20, according to the Federal Register.