The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has rejected EnergySolutions’ subpoena for information in a civil antitrust lawsuit, arguing that the request is burdensome, vague, and fails to follow agency guidelines.
EnergySolutions’ filed the subpoena on Jan. 24, as it prepares to contest the Department of Justice’s antitrust lawsuit challenging the company’s $367 million acquisition of Waste Control Specialists. DOJ argues that the deal would merge the two largest competitors for low-level radioactive waste (LLRW) disposal services in dozens of states, monopolizing the market. EnergySolutions said it plans to “vigorously defend” the buyout, asserting its competitors operate numerous disposal sites for LLRW.
EnergySolutions and WCS in the subpoena requested all NRC documents related to state or federal regulation of operational low-level radioactive waste, as well as several other documents. The subpoena is considered routine for such a case.
The NRC responded in a letter to EnergySolutions’ legal counsel on Jan. 26, in a filing made public Friday. The agency denied the request because it fails to satisfy the NRC’s Touhy regulations — significant requests for information, paperwork, or testimony in a lawsuit in which the NRC is not a named party — and because it’s “unduly burdensome.”
“Your subpoena as currently worded is extraordinarily burdensome and vague, particularly given that tens of thousands of publicly available documents that appear to be responsive to your requests are available, at no charge to the public, through the agency’s searchable public ADAMS database,” the letter reads.
EnergySolutions requested that the NRC produce the documents by Feb. 6, eight days after the subpoena was received.
“Given the number of documents that your subpoena appears to capture, that time frame is clearly unreasonable,” the NRC letter reads, adding that the agency is willing to entertain any future requests that comply with agency standards.
