Federal agencies and Texas have entered into mediation over the state’s lawsuit demanding that the United States advance a permanent solution to storage of U.S. nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain in Nevada.
An initial mediation session occurred on April 4, and a follow-up is scheduled for May 15; in between the parties on May 1 are scheduled to file position statements with the circuit mediator, attorneys for the U.S. Department of Justice and Nuclear Regulatory Commission said in a motion filed Monday asking for an extension to file their response to the Texas lawsuit.
The Texas Attorney General’s Office last month sued Energy Secretary (and former Texas governor) Rick Perry, Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Kristine Svinicki, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, and their respective agencies. The state broadly is asking the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals to halt the Obama administration’s program of consent-based siting of nuclear waste and instead proceed with the suspended licensing of Yucca Mountain as the ultimate repository for U.S. defense and commercial waste – as demanded by Congress in its 1987 amendment to the 1982 Nuclear Waste Policy Act.
Mediation could “result in eliminating, shaping, or narrowing” some of the issues raised in the state lawsuit, according to the extension request. The parties aren’t saying what that might entail: The NRC said Wednesday it cannot discuss matters in litigation or mediation, while the Department of Justice and Texas Attorney General’s Office did not respond to requests for comment.
The NRC and DOJ cited the ongoing mediation, as well as the complexity of the lawsuit and need for coordination among multiple federal agencies, in asking the court for an extension from April 19 to May 30 to respond to the Texas writ of mandamus. “The Federal Respondents (not including NRC) note particularly that additional time is required in light of the ongoing transition to the Trump Administration in order to allow sufficient time for newly-appointed officials at DOJ, DOE, and Treasury to review and approve their response before it can be filed,” according to the motion.
