PETITIONERS CALL FOR MACFARLANE’S RECUSAL FROM YUCCA DECISIONS

Pro-Yucca Mountain petitioners are asking NRC Chairman Allison MacFarlane to recuse herself from any Yucca-related decisions following the recent court ruling compelling the NRC to restart and complete the repository’s licensing process. The NRC’s general counsel is expected to soon make a recommendation on whether or not to appeal the decision. In the meantime, parties that petitioned for the licensing restart have cited among other issues the book she authored titled “Uncertain underground: Yucca Mountain and the nation’s high-level nuclear waste.”

A motion filed before the NRC Friday states, “By stating her unvarnished conclusions about factual, legal and policy issues that are now the subject of a contested licensing proceeding pending before the NRC, Dr. MacFarlane has disqualified herself from serving as an impartial judge of those same issues.” The filing, signed by Nye County, Nev., the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners and South Carolina, said, “In fact, many believe that she, like her predecessor was chosen to chair the NRC precisely because she support’s DOE’s attempt to withdraw the Yucca Mountain license application.”

Meanwhile, the House Energy and Commerce Committee is ramping up pressure on the NRC following the court ruling, noting in a letter Friday to the NRC that the Commissioners vowed in previous testimony to follow the court’s decision, and asked MacFarlane to testify at a Sept. 20 hearing. The panel also noted that in testimony NRC officials said that six to eight months were needed to complete the remaining Safety Evaluation Reports for the repository, which would cost $6.5 million, while the Agency has about $11 million in carryover on hand for Yucca activities. “Given these available resources and the progress already made to complete the SER, it is our expectation that the NRC’s first action to implement the Court’s decision will be to diligently resume its review of the license application, complete the SER , and issue it publicly,” the letter states.