NRC DENIES MOTION FOR CLARIFICATION IN YUCCA ORDER

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission late last week denied requests for clarification on the timeline and cost figures associated with the NRC Yucca Order issued last year, citing that nothing in the court’s writ of mandamus required detailed time and budgetary outlines. Nye County, Nev., the States of South Carolina and Washington, Aiken County, S.C., and the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners filed the motion for reconsideration hoping to obtain more definitive answers from the NRC about when the Safety Evaluation Reports would be completed and released as well as cost estimates for the project. “As fully explained in CLI-13-8, by taking an incremental approach, we have attempted to ensure, to the maximum extent possible, that the next logical steps in the process are completed,” the NRC order said. “Although the petitioners in the Aiken County decision sought a broad mandamus order, nothing in the court’s decision required us to undertake a particular course of action, to conduct an accounting containing the level of detail sought by the Five Parties, or to subject the Staff’s estimates of the time required to perform its work to the scrutiny of third parties. We decline to order the Staff to do more than has been directed by the D.C. Circuit.”