United States Tenth Circuit

In a petition for review of a license granted by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to conduct in situ leach mining for uranium on four sites in northwest New Mexico, the petition is denied where: 1) the clear language of 10 C.F.R. section 20.1301(a)(1) supported the NRC's decision to focus only on the licensed operation; 2) the National Environmental Policy Act did not prohibit approval of projects with negative cumulative effects; it only required that the agency consider and disclose such effects; and 3) there was no evidence in the administrative record to support petitioners' assertion that the NRC based its adoption of the nine-pore-volume restoration effort on economic reasons.

Appellate Information

• Decided 03/08/2010
• Published 03/08/2010

Judges

• EBEL, Circuit Judge., Before LUCERO, EBEL and FRIZZELL, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Tenth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Eric Jantz, New Mexico Environmental Law Center, Santa Fe, NM, (Diane Curran, Harmon, Curran, Spielberg & Eisenberg, L.L.P., Washington, D.C., Zackeree Kelin, DNA-People's Legal Services, Inc., Window Rock, AZ, with him on the briefs) for Petitioners., Louis Denetsosie, Attorney General and David A. Taylor, Senior Attorney, Natural Resource Unit, Navajo Nation Department of Justice, filed an amicus curiae brief for the Navajo Nation.


• For Appellees:
  
• Charles E. Mullins, Senior Attorney, Office of the General Counsel, United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission (Ronald J. Tenpas, Acting Assistant Attorney General, John E. Arbab, Appellate Section, Environmental and Natural Resources Division, United States Department of Justice, Karen D. Cyr, General Counsel, John F. Cordes, Jr., Solicitor, E. Leo Slaggie, Deputy Solicitor, Steven C. Hamrick, Attorney, Office of the General Counsel, United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission, with him on the brief) Washington, D.C., for Respondents., Anthony J. Thompson (Christopher S. Pugsley, with him on the brief) Thompson & Simmons, PLLC, Washington, D.C. for Intervenor-Respondent.