Wash. files suit on Yucca Mountain consideration

YAKIMA, Wash. — Washington state has filed another lawsuit to compel the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to resume consideration of the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository.

Attorney General Rob McKenna says the commission has failed to consider the Department of Energy's request to withdraw its license application for the site.

He says that failure could result in high-level radioactive waste being left at Washington's Hanford nuclear reservation.

The lawsuit asks the court to determine that the commission has unreasonably delayed consideration of the license application and to compel the agency to do and provide a schedule for a decision.

McKenna says South Carolina and several other entities have joined in the case.