The Petitioners in the Yucca Mountain litigation
filed their response brief to the earlier submitted Department
of Justice brief (filed 1/3/11) in the U.S. Appeals Court, District of
Columbia. The Court has scheduled oral argument for March 22, 2011.
In part, the Petitioners, including Aiken County and the states of South
Carolina and Washington as well as private petitioners Ferguson et al,
argue that the Federal Government in the agency of DOE has unilaterally
abandoned the NWPA's process to develop a repository at Yucca Mountain.
"Each discrete action taken by DOE, however, is merely the execution of a
singular, root decision by the Secretary on order of the President ...
It is this root decision that Petitioners challenge in their broader claim.
Because Respondents'' decision fundamentally repudiates the plain terms and
policy dictated by the NWPA, it is contrary to law."
"Respondents assert that the agency's pre-existing authority and organic
discretion to make policy decisions regarding the isposal of nuclear waste
can still trump the NWPA ..."
"They are wrong"
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