Nuke regulators bring Yucca Mountain waste plan closer to death

By Ben Geman - 09/09/11 03:14 PM ET

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) acted Friday to end review of the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump, handing a victory to the Obama administration in its ongoing effort to kill the project.

The NRC split 2-2 in failing to decide whether to uphold or reject a decision by its Atomic Safety and Licensing Board (ASLB), which last year rejected the Energy Department’s attempt to withdraw the license application for the Nevada project.

But the NRC, citing funding constraints, instructed the ASLB to close out its work on the project by the end of this fiscal year, which is the end of the month.

Here’s their rather wordy statement:
Consistent with budgetary limitations, the Board has taken action to preserve information associated with this adjudication. In furtherance of this, we hereby exercise our inherent supervisory authority to direct the Board to, by the close of the current fiscal year, complete all necessary and appropriate case management activities, including disposal of all matters currently pending before it and comprehensively documenting the full history of the adjudicatory proceeding.