The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has scheduled oral arguments July 27 in Rockville, MD, on Nevada's complaint that Energy Department documents supporting a national nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain are incomplete.

President Bush signed a bill July 23, 2002, making Yucca Mountain the nation's central repository for nuclear waste. Nevada's senators, who tried to sway colleagues to vote against the waste dump, argued the issue was broader than Nevada. They hoped concerns over thousands of waste shipments by truck and rail crossing 43 states would change some lawmakers’ minds, but they were defeated.

In this latest development, Nevada officials on July 12 challenged the Energy Department's June 30 declaration that information needed to support the Yucca plan was made public six months before applying for an operating license from the NRC.

The Energy Department said it satisfied the law by putting the documents on its Web site while the Nuclear Regulatory Commission processes the documents.

However, Nevada officials argue the law requires the documents to be fully accessible at NRC's online database, the Licensing Support Network.

If the NRC judges agree, it could delay the department's plan to submit a Yucca Mountain license application to the commission in December, and might stall the department's plan to open the repository in 2010.