March 17, 2014

GROUP APPEALS MACFARLANE’S DECISION ON RECUSAL

By ExchangeMonitor

A group consisting of Nye County, Nev., the state of South Carolina, and Aiken County, S.C. filed a petition late last week to appeal Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Allison Macfarlane’s denial of a motion to recuse herself from all decisions concerning Yucca Mountain. According to the filing, “Macfarlane’s extensive independent investigations and published conclusions on dispositive issues (including her public conclusion that Yucca Mountain is unsuitable as the site of the nation’s high-level waste repository) coincide with the position taken by opponents of the Yucca Mountain repository and cause reasonable observers to question her impartiality and conclude that she has prejudged the merits of the Department of Energy’s license application.”

The filing parties previously filed the motion for her recusal, but Macfarlane concluded her previous involvement would not affect the current review of the project. “I can state without hesitation that I have not prejudged the technical, policy, or legal issues in this adjudicatory proceeding, and that my expertise will enhance the Commission’s deliberations and decision-making,” Macfarlane said in her decision. “In fact, I have not looked at the DOE’s license application, the NRC’s staff’s safety or environmental reviews, or considered how to apply the law or NRC regulations to determine the adequacy of the application. And I have not made up my mind on any of the issues raised by the application.”

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