The Nevada Board of Examiners on Tuesday approved a $5.1 million, two-year renewal to the state contract with a law firm for counsel in its fight against the planned Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository.
The contract amendment keeps Egan, Fitzpatrick, Malsch, & Lawrence on the job through Feb. 28, 2022, with a maximum payment of $10.2 million.
“This is the first amendment to the original contract which continues outside counsel to assist with Yucca Mountain litigation and for representation of the state before the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission on related issues,” according to the contract description of the agenda for the Board of Examiners’ meeting.
The money is provided through the Nevada Attorney General’s Office’s special litigation fund.
The law firm, with offices in Washington, D.C., and Austin, Texas, specializes in litigation and other legal work involving federal agencies including the Department of Energy and Nuclear Regulatory Commission. It has the “high-level nuclear expertise” needed to represent the state on those issues, according to the justification for the budget amendment.
The Department of Energy in 2008 filed its license application with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to build and operate the geologic repository in Nye County, Nev., for permanent disposal of high-level radioactive waste and spent fuel from nuclear power plants. The state has long opposed the facility, filing more than 200 contentions against the license application before the Obama administration defunded the proceeding in 2010. The Trump administration has requested new funding to resume licensing in three consecutive annual budget plans, but so far has been rebuffed by Congress.
Among other work in recent years, Egan, Fitzpatrick, Malsch, & Lawrence filed the state’s 2018 federal court petition seeking to force NRC Commissioner David Wright to recuse himself from any decision on the Yucca Mountain license. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit dismissed the petition late last year, saying Wright might never make a decision on the application.
