Nevada files to remove Nuclear Commission member for bias

The State of Nevada has filed a petition with the Washington, D.C., appeals court to disqualify David Wright from participating in the Yucca Mountain licensing case before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Nevada’s Agency for Nuclear Projects moved to disqualify Wright pointing to his bias in favor of the project. That includes forming a lobbying group to advance the project, his statements referring to Nevada’s position as “myopic resistance,” and his “inappropriately premature belief that the Department of Energy’s license applications complies with all NRC requirements.”

“Wright’s participation in any licensing decisions would violate Nevada’s constitutional right to unbiased decision-makers at the NRC,” the federal court petition says.

Gov. Brian Sandoval said he strongly supports the filing.

“The state of Nevada will continue to fight and defeat the dangerous Yucca Mountain project at every opportunity and in any venue. Any revival of Yucca Mountain would come at the direct expense of the health and safety of Nevadans and Nevada will not stand for it,” Sandoval said.

He was joined by Attorney General Adam Laxalt who said the petition “continues our fight to protect Nevadans from the poster-child for federal overreach, the ill-conceived and discredited high-level nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain.”

The project was effectively killed during the Obama administration when the regulatory process was defunded. But President Trump revived it by demanding Congress fund the regulatory hearings and move to license the waste dump designed to hold tons of high-level nuclear waste.

The petition was filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.