LAS VEGAS (AP) - Administrative judges from a Nuclear Regulatory Commission branch have scheduled hearings June 3 and 4 in Las Vegas on whether a plan to build a national nuclear waste dump in Nevada should be shut down.
The Atomic Safety and Licensing Board is due to decide by June 30 whether the federal Energy Department can withdraw its application to build the Yucca Mountain repository 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
Attorneys representing the Energy Department, NRC, Nevada, California, Nuclear Energy Institute, and several counties will take part.
Several parties are suing to prevent the government from killing the project.
South Carolina and Washington state, Aiken County, S.C., the Prairie Island Indian Community in Minnesota and the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners also seek to take part in the hearings.