NEW YORK TIMES EDITORIAL URGES NRC TO MOVE AHEAD WITH YUCCA LICENSING

Calling the recent court decision condemning the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s shutdown of the Yucca Mountain licensing process a “well-justified rebuke,” a New York Times editorial yesterday called for the Agency to restart repository licensing. Last week the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit found 2-to-1 that the NRC’s shutdown in 2010 was illegal, and granted a petition to restart licensing. “After spending decades and billions of dollars in studying Yucca, Congress ought to appropriate enough new funds to complete the overall licensing evaluation to determine whether or not Yucca would make an acceptable repository,” the Times editorial states. “Meanwhile, as a step in that process, we urge the commission not to appeal the court decision but instead use its remaining money to publish an unredacted safety evaluation. The information would be useful because underground burial, if not at Yucca then elsewhere, remains the preferred option for permanent disposal.”