Ward Valley land sale put on hold by court

The effort to site a low-level waste disposal facility in California is, for the moment at least, impeded by two conditions: The preferred tract of land has not yet been bought, and the state has not yet issued a license. The Ward Valley site, in the southeastern part of the state, is federally owned and must be acquired from the Interior Department's Bureau of Land Management (BLM). Construction of the facility can begin only if a license is issued by the state's Department of Health Services (DHS). Some facility proponents worry that neither condition can be satisfied before the other one is. The current focus is on land acquisition, with a federal judge in northern California thwarting an effort by departing Interior Secretary Manuel Lujan to transfer the land