Ameren's request to renew the operating license for its Callaway Nuclear Power Plant with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, for the next 20 years, has garnered another legal challenge.
On top of the objectionfiled in April by the Missouri Coalition for the Environment,a petition was filed today by 22 groups and 2 individuals, including MCE, asking for a suspension of the NRC's final decision on Callaway's license renewal. The petitioners say the decision should be made only pending the completion of what the petitioners call "environmental review obligations."
A release says the petitioners ask for:
"the NRC to establish procedures for ensuring that members of the public can comment on the environmental analysis and raise site-specific concerns about the environmental impacts of highly radioactive spent nuclear reactor fuel in individual licensing cases."
The petition filed today was part of a national action against license decisions for nuclear reactors in 14 states.
As with the objection filed in April, today's petition is not related to Ameren's recently announced plansto team up with Westinghouse Electric Co.to build five smaller, "modular" nuclear reactors.
The companies are seeking more than $450 million in federal support for that project.
