Court Sides With NRC on Plan To Build Reprocessing Plant in N.M.

摘要

A federal appeals court has rejected an effort by anti-nuclear groups to block a nuclear fuel processing plant from being built in southeastern New Mexico.rnThe U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., supported the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's 2006 decision to give Louisiana Energy Services a license to build the $1.5 billion uranium-enrichment plant.rnCritics, including the Nuclear Information and Resource Service, had argued that the agency failed to properly consider how to dispose of the plant's radioactive waste.rnThe project lies along the Texas border east of Eunice. Construction is under way, and Louisiana Energy Services expects to process its first batches of uranium in the summer of 2009.rnUranium processed at the factory would be used in nuclear plants to generate electricity.