A judge could decide by December the fate of a lawsuit about the Department of Energy’s years of allegedly illegal long-term nuclear-waste storage near Butte County.
After hearing oral arguments Oct. 30 from the county, the state of Idaho and the U.S. Department of Justice on the government’s motion for dismissal of the county’s suit, “the court took this matter under advisement with a written decision to be forthcoming,” U.S. District Judge David Nye said in a brief online entry.
Judge Nye aspires to issue decisions within 45 days after oral argument, according to a court website. Should the judge meet his target timeline, a decision would be out around mid-December.
Butte County is home to the Idaho National Laboratory. The county filed suit in March against DOE saying the lab has become a default long-term repository for nuclear waste from sources such as the U.S. Navy and Three-Mile Island-2 reactor, which partially melted down in 1979. The county argued DOE needs to properly catalog the impact of this waste storage, potentially opening the door for federal payments.
The Justice Department responded by saying DOE has not set up an interim nuclear storage program at the Idaho National Laboratory under pertinent federal laws. The Justice Department has said the Butte County case has no basis in fact or in law. The federal government said the case should be thrown out for failure to state a claim.
