• June 12, 2012
• By Jeremy Carroll

The U.S. Court of Appeals has ruled that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission must re-evaluate the environmental impacts of the storage and disposal of nuclear waste.

The Natural Resources Defense Council, four states and a number of environmental groups have challenged the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's rulemaking on temporary storage of nuclear waste.

"This forces the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to take a hard look at the environmental consequences of producing highly radioactive nuclear waste without a long-term disposal solution," said Geoff Fettus, senior project attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council, in a statement.

The court ruled that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission did not calculate the environmental effects of failing to secure permanent storage for nuclear waste, and that the group failed to consider future dangers and consequences of long-term temporary storage.

w w w . w a s t e r e c y c l i n g n e w s . c o m

copyright 2012 by Crain Communications Inc. All rights reserved.