Wash. to intervene in Yucca Mountain case

[March 02, 2010]  YAKIMA, Wash. (AP) -- Washington state plans to intervene in the federal government's decision to withdraw its license application for a Nevada nuclear waste repository.

The U.S. Energy Department had planned to send waste from Washington's Hanford nuclear reservation to Yucca Mountain, a proposed repository. But the agency has a motion pending to withdraw its license application "with prejudice" -- permanently removing it from consideration as the nation's radioactive waste repository.

Washington Attorney General Rob McKenna said Monday the state would intervene in the case.

On Friday, a federal court awarded Energy Northwest nearly $57 million in damages from the Energy Department for breach of contract for failing to take the utility's spent nuclear fuel, which was to have gone to Yucca Mountain.

Energy Northwest operates the only commercial nuclear reactor in the Northwest.

[Associated Press]

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