From Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League (BREDL):

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) acted today to put a hold on at least 19 pending reactor reviews – nine construction & operating licenses (including Duke Energy Carolinas William States Lee in Gaffney, SC), eight license renewal, one operating license, and one early site permit – in response to the landmark Waste Confidence Rule decision of June 8th by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

The NRC action was sought in a June 18, 2012 petition filed by 24 groups asking the urging the NRC to respond to the court ruling by freezing final licensing decisions until it has completed a rulemaking action on the environmental impacts of highly radioactive nuclear waste in the form of spent, or ‘used’, reactor fuel storage and disposal.

Lou Zeller, Executive Director of the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League, said, “It appears that the Commissioners have, at least initially, grasped the magnitude of the Court’s ruling and we are optimistic that it will set up fundamentally transparent, fair process under the National Environmental Policy Act to examine the serious environmental impacts spent nuclear fuel storage and disposal prior to licensing and relicensing nuclear reactors.”