The Sierra Club and a host of other environmental organizations are requesting disqualification of a board of three Nuclear Regulatory Commission administrative judges established this month to rule on petitions to intervene in the licensing proceeding for a planned spent nuclear fuel storage site in Texas.
The primary contention is that the same three-member Atomic Safety and Licensing Board has been appointed to review intervention and hearing requests on license applications for two separate planned consolidated interim storage facilities (CISF): Interim Storage Partners’ site in Andrews County, Texas, and Holtec International’s project in nearby Lea County, N.M.
The administrative judges are Paul Ryerson, Nicholas Trikouros, and Gary Arnold.
This situation “suggests the appearance of bias and requires appointment of a different ASLB panel to preside over this case,” according to the disqualification petition filed with the NRC on Monday and posted to the agency website Tuesday.
“Appointment of the identical licensing panel to adjudicate each of these wholly separate CISF cases poses the appearance of bias,” the groups said.
The Sierra Club has individually requested a hearing and intervention in both license proceedings. The other parties to the disqualification petition are part of a coalition led by Don’t Waste Michigan that seeks to intervene in the Interim Storage Partners license application. A slightly different configuration of that coalition is also seeking intervention in the Holtec proceeding.
The NRC declined to comment Tuesday on the petition.
