UPDATE: NJ Seeks To Limit Nuclear Waste Stored At Shut Plants

New Jersey is seeking to join a multistate challenge that would limit how long shuttered nuclear power plants can store waste on site.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission passed a rule earlier this year stating that keeping spent fuel from nuclear plants safely in pools or casks for 60 years wouldn't pose an environmental threat, instead of the prior finding of 30 years. Several states are arguing that plants shouldn't be allowed to store this waste material on their premises for more than 30 years after they have lost the license to operate.

New Jersey is asking a federal appeals court for permission to join a challenge filed by New York, Connecticut and Vermont against the NRC's ruling on Feb. 14 on lack of scientific evidence that it is safe to do so.

The proper way to permanently dispose of toxic nuclear waste has been mired in decades of controversy, and the government has spent billions of dollars trying to come up with a solution. The plan to store waste at Yucca Mountain in Nevada was scrapped last year, but some Republicans in Congress are seeking to review the program.

Keeping spent fuel for six decades on a decommissioned site "is too long," said Lawrence Ragonese, spokesman for New Jersey's Department of Environmental Protection. "Without an environmental impact statement vetting the science and facts, we think the decision is just arbitrary."

NRC spokesman David McIntyre said this "waste confidence rule" is being misstated in that it doesn't permit waste storage. This rule is "a generic finding that the waste can be stored safely in pools or in casks for at least a certain amount of time without significant environmental impacts," he said.

The states issuing the court challenge disagree.

The timing of New Jersey's request to join the challenge isn't related to the nuclear crisis unfolding in Japan, where officials are trying to prevent a meltdown of four reactors at Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s (9501.TO) Fukushima Daiichi plant. They are pumping seawater using fire hoses in a last ditch effort to cool the cores after back-up generators were knocked out by the tsunami caused by the 9.0-magnitude earthquake Friday. Explosions at containment buildings housing reactors have exposed pools of spent fuel.

Ragonese said New Jersey had to make a decision because of a court deadline.

There are four nuclear reactors in New Jersey, but Exelon Corp. (EXC) recently announced it would be shutting down its single reactor in Oyster Creek at the end of 2019, a decade ahead of schedule. The decision was made to avoid making costly environmental conditions amid weak power prices. Oyster Creek, which began operations in 1969, is the U.S.'s oldest nuclear plant.

Meanwhile, Vermont lawmakers are trying to get Entergy Corp. (ETR) to shut down its Vermont Yankee nuclear plant after its initial 40-year operating license expires early next year because of safety concerns. The NRC, though, voted to extend the operating license by two decades.

-By Naureen S. Malik, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-4210; naureen.malik@dowjones.com

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