JURIST - Paper Chase: Appeals court rules Yucca Mountain waste site is constitutional

Rejecting challenges by Nevada, the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled Friday that federal plans to build a nuclear waste site in the state were constitutional. In the per curiam opinion, the court did reject EPA plans to protect against radiation for 10,000 years as inconsistent with evidence from the National Academy of Sciences. Nevada will likely appeal the decision and oppose the issuing of a permit by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Congress approved government plans to construct the waste site at Yucca Mountain in 2002, but the state and environmental groups challenged those plans. In deciding on the constitutionality of the siting decision by Congress, the court wrote:

We reject Nevada’s claim and uphold the Resolution. Yucca Mountain is located on federal land, and Congress has the authority under the Property Clause to designate the site for development as a repository. To the extent that the Constitution requires that legislation regulating federal lands have a rational basis, the Resolution meets this standard. In exercising its Property Clause power to enact the Resolution, Congress has not regulated Nevada’s activities so as to infringe upon State sovereignty interests of the type recognized under the Tenth Amendment.

The full opinion is available here [PDF]. AP has more.

For a one-stop snapshot of the latest legal news that matters, with breaking documents, new legal videos, live law-related webcasts, commentary by expert law professors and more - all updated through the day in real time, with no ads and no registration barriers - visit JURIST's homepage and check back often...