A major environmental group asked a judge to force the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to reconsider a basket of objections to the licensing of an interim storage site, including one the agency initially acted on, according to court filings last week.
Sierra Club filed a petition Feb. 9 in D.C.’s Ninth Circuit court to reopen nine appeals of contentions to Interim Storage Partners’ (ISP) proposed consolidated interim fuel storage site in Texas that the group filed in 2018 and that have since been closed by the NRC.
In the single objection the NRC previously engaged with, Sierra Club raised concerns about the effects of site construction on local wildlife populations, according to the court filing. The commission eventually closed the contention after asking ISP to provide more information on the issue, which the company did in September 2019.
The environmental group appealed the commission’s decision in 2019, and the agency denied the appeal in December of last year, along with the eight other appeals in question, the filing said.
Initial filings in the Feb. 9 petition, which challenges the commission’s December decision, are due from both parties by the end of March, according to the court docket.
ISP’s proposed interim storage site in Andrews, Texas, as well as Holtec International’s proposed site in southeastern New Mexico, are undergoing a federal environmental impact review. The commission has said that these processes may take until the summer to complete.
