Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Attorney in Nevada’s Yucca case is seriously ill

The lead attorney representing Nevada in its fight against a nuclear repository at Yucca Mountain has departed because of illness, said Bob Loux, director of the state Agency for Nuclear Projects.

Attorney Joe Egan has battled stomach cancer for more than two years. He is continuing in an advisory role but Martin G. Malsch, a 30-year veteran of nuclear law and former acting general counsel of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, became lead licensing counsel last week.

Egan's firm, Egan, Fitzpatrick & Malsch, was hired in 2001 by Nevada to represent it before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in licensing proceedings for the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository.

The firm is preparing for a four-year proceeding scheduled to begin when the Energy Department files its Yucca Mountain license application with the commission expected in June.

Nevada has opposed the nuclear waste repository proposed for Yucca Mountain, about 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, since the area was named as a potential site in 1983.

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