WASHINGTON — The Obama administration won a legal battle Friday in the long-standing fight over where to bury the nation’s nuclear waste.
The federal appeals court in Washington ruled against South Carolina, Washington state and others that want to ship radioactive spent nuclear fuel they are temporarily storing to a repository 90 miles from Las Vegas at Yucca Mountain.
Congress chose Yucca Mountain as the leading candidate for waste disposal, but the Obama administration said it would not consider the site and would seek alternatives.
The appeals court ruled that it is not an appropriate time for it to intervene because the Nuclear Regulatory Commission hasn’t made a final decision yet on the status of Yucca Mountain. The court threw out the case.
