The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals this week allowed consumer advocacy group Public Citizen to pull out of a joint lawsuit challenging a proposed commercial interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel in west Texas, court filings show.
Public Citizen, which until Monday was part of a coalition of anti-nuclear groups suing the Nuclear Regulatory Commission over its September decision to license Interim Storage Partners’ (ISP) proposed site, announced its intention to withdraw from the case in a Oct. 20 court filing.
A spokesperson for Public Citizen told RadWaste Monitor via email Thursday that the organization withdrew “to remedy an internal miscommunication.” Public Citizen “still supports the aim of the lawsuit,” the spokesperson said.
The anti-nuclear groups, which include Beyond Nuclear and the Sierra Club, filed suit against NRC last year, claiming that the agency unfairly denied their requests for a public hearing on the ISP project while the agency was deliberating on a licensing decision. The coalition also argued that NRC’s decision to license the proposed Andrews, Texas, facility runs afoul of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act (NWPA).
NRC has said that the coalition’s lawsuit has no basis, because the commission had already denied their agency-level petitions to stop the licensing process. NRC has also argued that the Atomic Energy Act, not NWPA, gives it the authority to license interim storage.
Oral arguments in the suit are scheduled for Nov. 10.
