Tupper reports that the site of a potential uranium mine in southwest South Dakota will not have to be surveyed again for cultural resources of concern to the Oglala Sioux Tribe if a decision issued Thursday by a panel of judges is upheld. A lawyer for the tribe said it is evaluating the decision before deciding whether to file an appeal prior to a Jan. 6 deadline.
The three judges with the U.S. Atomic Safety and Licensing Board wrote in their decision that the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission tried diligently to cooperate with the tribe to conduct an on-the-ground survey for Native American burials, artifacts and other historical and cultural resources. The judges also wrote that the commission was justified in giving up when it became apparent the tribe would not cooperate. The judges acknowledged the federal government’s obligation to obey the National Environmental Policy Act, known by the acronym NEPA, which the judges said requires a “hard look” at the environmental impact of activities licensed by the government.
“Those considerations are not, however, absolutes,” the judges wrote, “to the degree that they preclude a federal agency from taking action in the exercise of its NEPA responsibilities once a reasonable effort has been made to procure the cooperation and input from a tribe.”
The decision, unless overruled on appeal to the five members of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission or later in the courts, will free up the mine project's NRC license from the last contention that was attached to it.
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