The court holds that the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) must prepare a new environmental assessment (EA) for the shipment of 118 spent nuclear fuel rods from Taiwan through the port of Hampton Roads, Virginia, to a processing facility on the Savannah River in South Carolina, because its 1991 EA for...

The court invalidates a 1999 U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) order governing the disposal of high-level radioactive waste (HLW) at the Hanford site in Washington, the INEEL facility in Idaho, and the Savannah River site in South Carolina. Part of the order defines a process by which HLW that meets c...

The Ninth Circuit held unripe nonprofit groups' action to obtain a declaration that a U.S. Department of Energy order that outlines the management of defense radioactive waste is invalid. Delayed review will not cause any real cognizable hardship, but intervention at this point would unduly interfer...

A district court granted the state of Washington's motion for partial summary judgment on its claim that the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) violated the Washington State Hazardous Waste Management Act (HWMA) when it decided to ship radioactive and hazardous mixed transuranic waste to the Hanford Nu...

The court preliminarily enjoins the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) from importing 409 spent nuclear fuel assemblies for storage at the Savannah River site in South Carolina until the court resolves on the merits South Carolina's claim under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) that an envir...

The Court of Federal Claims held that nuclear utilities were entitled to almost $57 million in mitigation expenses related to DOE’s failure to accept nuclear waste by the date set forth in the contract between the utilities and DOE. In their suit, the utilities sought, among other things, cost...

A district court expanded a preliminary injunction already in place to prevent the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) from shipping any low-level or mixed low-level transuranic waste to the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Washington. The risks associated with disposal of low-level or mixed low-level was...

The court holds that petitioners lack standing to challenge a Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) rule that revised regulations governing the exemption standards for the transportation of radioactive material. The petitioners argue that the NRC violated the National Environmental Policy Act in prepa...

The court denies Nevada's petition for review of the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE's) final environmental impact statement (EIS) for a nuclear waste underground repository and a portion of its record of decision governing the transportation of nuclear waste from production sources to Yucca Mounta...

The Tenth Circuit upheld a lower court decision denying a citizen group's lawsuit to enjoin the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE's) approved operation of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, a nuclear waste repository located in southeastern New Mexico. The group argued that DOE relied on faulty data re...