Environmental justice issue halts nuclear facility plans

Abstract

Citing a 1994 presidential executive order on environmental justice, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) licensing board has denied Louisiana Energy Services a permit to build an $850 million uranium enrichment facility in a poor, rural, black community in northern Louisiana. company, which has invested $32 million and eight years in its quest to build the facility to supply commercial nuclear power plants, is expected to appeal the precedent-setting decision to the full NRC. We are beyond elated, says Nathalie Walker, a Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund attorney representing Citizens Against Nuclear Trash, a local group that intervened in the licensing decision. No court or agency has ever ruled on a claim of environmental racism in the U.S. This opens a new chapter in environmental and civil rights. However, company spokeswoman Mary Boyd says, The decision is totally without merit. There was no discrimination in the siting process. In fact, Louisiana has an enterprise zone ...