DC Circuit Court Schedules Oral Arguments in Yucca Mountain Case

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has scheduled oral arguments in the consolidated cases brought against the Department of Energy in the wake of the agency's decision to terminate the Yucca Mountain repository program. The arguments are now scheduled for March 22, at 9:30 a.m. The lead petitioners in the case, the States of South Carolina and Washington, are arguing that the Nuclear Waste Policy Act does not give the Department the discretion it exercised in abandoning the project and asking the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to withdraw, with prejudice, its license application for the Yucca Mountain site.