State seeks to join challenge to NRC rule change on spent fuel
Seeks to join suit on spent fuel
A Nuclear Regulatory Commission rule doubling to 60 years the time spent fuel can be stored on site at closed reactors is under a court challenge by three states, and New Jersey wants to join the lawsuit.
On Tuesday, state Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Bob Martin announced the agency sought permission from the U.S. Appeals Court for the District of Columbia Circuit to join the lawsuit brought by New York, Connecticut and Vermont.
The NRC originally set 30 years as the outside limits for storing spent fuel at shuttered reactors, as a prelude to the eventual move of high-level waste to a permanent federal repository.
But last year the Obama administration pulled the plug on plans for the Yucca Mountain depository that would have been built in Nevada.
The DEP will contend in court that the federal nuclear agency acted in an arbitrary and capricious manner when it put out the new 60-year rule. The change also requires an environmental impact statement under the National Environmental Policy Act, but the NRC neglected that step, state officials will argue.
"The federal government has an obligation to develop a permanent plan for nuclear waste storage, and cannot avoid an answer by extending the time that radioactive waste is allowed to remain on sites in New Jersey and across the nation," Martin said in his announcement.
Spent fuel is stored at New Jersey's four reactors, and the NRC rule could mean it remains at the Oyster Creek power plant in Lacey until 2079. Gov. Chris Christie's administration negotiated a deal with reactor operator Exelon to end power generation there by 2019 rather than try to force the company to build cooling towers for its thermal discharge.
David Pringle of the New Jersey Environmental Federation said that the state's move to join the nuclear storage lawsuit is especially striking in light of last week's decision by the Christie administration to drop out of another multistate case on greenhouse gas emissions.
"It's like one step forward, one step back," Pringle said. "Obviously it (nuclear storage) is a lot bigger deal than it was a week ago."
Worries that one of the Japanese reactors may have breached its containment underline the federation's longtime concerns about corrosion in the drywell liner at Oyster Creek, Pringle said.
On Tuesday, state Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Bob Martin announced the agency sought permission from the U.S. Appeals Court for the District of Columbia Circuit to join the lawsuit brought by New York, Connecticut and Vermont.
The NRC originally set 30 years as the outside limits for storing spent fuel at shuttered reactors, as a prelude to the eventual move of high-level waste to a permanent federal repository.
But last year the Obama administration pulled the plug on plans for the Yucca Mountain depository that would have been built in Nevada.
The DEP will contend in court that the federal nuclear agency acted in an arbitrary and capricious manner when it put out the new 60-year rule. The change also requires an environmental impact statement under the National Environmental Policy Act, but the NRC neglected that step, state officials will argue.
"The federal government has an obligation to develop a permanent plan for nuclear waste storage, and cannot avoid an answer by extending the time that radioactive waste is allowed to remain on sites in New Jersey and across the nation," Martin said in his announcement.
Spent fuel is stored at New Jersey's four reactors, and the NRC rule could mean it remains at the Oyster Creek power plant in Lacey until 2079. Gov. Chris Christie's administration negotiated a deal with reactor operator Exelon to end power generation there by 2019 rather than try to force the company to build cooling towers for its thermal discharge.
David Pringle of the New Jersey Environmental Federation said that the state's move to join the nuclear storage lawsuit is especially striking in light of last week's decision by the Christie administration to drop out of another multistate case on greenhouse gas emissions.
"It's like one step forward, one step back," Pringle said. "Obviously it (nuclear storage) is a lot bigger deal than it was a week ago."
Worries that one of the Japanese reactors may have breached its containment underline the federation's longtime concerns about corrosion in the drywell liner at Oyster Creek, Pringle said.
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