Court orders review of Yucca Mountain nuclear waste site to continue

New York Times : In 2002 the US Congress authorized the Department of Energy to prepare Yucca Mountain in Nevada as a national nuclear waste repository. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission was conducting a site review until it was stopped by the Obama administration and all progress on the site came to a halt. Now, the DC Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that the administration did not have the authority to halt the review. The 2–1 decision says that because the review was mandated by Congress, the president is obliged to carry it out, regardless of policy objections. Funding of $11 million is still available for the review; the court says that money must be spent. It isn’t clear whether the funding is enough to complete the review. The NRC hasn’t said whether it will appeal the court’s decision. If it does not, the decision of whether to continue funding the Yucca Mountain project will be up to Congress.