Attorneys for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission this week said the dilemma of how to store hot, radioactive waste at sites across the country must first be resolved before more reactor licenses are approved or extended.

The NRC must respond to a federal appeals court ruling earlier this month that the agency didn't sufficiently analyze the environmental effects of storing nuclear waste, possibly for years, without a permanent solution in sight. Only then can the agency make final decisions in licensing proceedings, the attorneys wrote in a filing to the NRC.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit said storing the waste in wet pools and dry casks requires either an environmental impact statement or a "finding of no significant environmental impact" (Greenwire, June 8).

The attorneys' comments came in response to a petition that environmentalists filed with the NRC. The groups asked that the agency halt its licensing proceedings until it fully investigates the threats posed by storing nuclear waste.

All five members of the NRC will ultimately decide how the agency responds to the court ruling and the petition request. NRC spokesman Scott Burnell said the decisions are closely linked but there's no timeline for the commission to act. "It's reasonable to say that the agency's decision on how to approach the ruling itself from the D.C. Circuit and its answer to the petition are rather strongly tied together," Burnell said.

Although the NRC attorneys said major decisions should not be made until the court's concerns are resolved, the staffers also noted that no major licensing decisions are likely to occur anytime soon.

"While the staff agrees that no final decision to grant a combined license operating license, or renewed operating license, should be made in the captioned proceedings until the NRC has appropriately dispositioned the issues remanded by the court, there are no imminent final initial or renewed reactor licensing decisions," they said.

Entergy Corp.'s Indian Point nuclear power plant north of New York City is closest to receiving a license renewal from the commission, but an NRC licensing board is also expected to hear concerns about the plant in public hearings starting in October. Indian Point's two reactors in Buchanan, N.Y., expire in 2013 and 2015.

Progress Energy Florida's Levy plant in north-central Florida would be next in line to receive a combined operating license from the NRC, but the agency is also slated to hear concerns about that plant.

The Nuclear Energy Institute said in filings to the NRC that the environmental groups' petition to stop licensing is premature and unnecessary. Instead, the NRC's environmental analysis of waste storage should be handled through a formal rulemaking, NEI said.

NEI also rejected the groups' request for a 60-day period to raise concerns related to the waste confidence issue.

"Neither new procedures nor a separate timetable for raising new issues related to the remanded proceedings are warranted," NEI wrote.