Estimated read time: Less than a minute
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
WASHINGTON (AP) - Responding to a court order, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has directed its staff to complete work on a key safety report related to a never-completed nuclear waste dump in Nevada.
The commission order, issued Monday, follows an August ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, which said the nuclear agency violated federal law by abruptly abandoning review of the proposed storage site at Nevada's Yucca Mountain.
The appeals court ordered the NRC to continue work on the proposed waste site 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas until Congress directs otherwise or the agency runs out of money. The NRC says it has $11 million budgeted for the Yucca review, far less than needed to complete the five-volume study. Only one volume is finished.
(Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
