Lou Zeller, from the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League, gets a chance Wednesday to argue the environmental group's challenges against Duke Energy's plans for a nuclear power plant near McKown's Mountain. A 3-member panel of administrative law judges, including William Murphy, Paul Ryerson and Nicholas Trikouros, expect to decide by Sept. 22 if the group's challenge is sufficient to move forward. With cameras surrounding the courtroom at the Cherokee County Courthouse on Wednesday, an environmental group appeared before a panel of judges from the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board in an attempt to halt Duke Energy's plans for a multi-billion dollar nuclear power plant near McKown's Mountain.

The group's members' reasons varied but their desired result was all the same.

"I'm a grandmother," said Dianne Biggs of Walnut Grove. "The Good Lord gave us better sense than to use something we can't contain."

It was unclear Wednesday, though, if anything the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League had to say about the Duke's proposed nuclear plant resonated with the three judges, two of whom continually peppered the group's leader, Lou Zeller, with questions about the information in the group's multi-pronged challenge as well as for responses to Duke Energy's lawyer's claims the environmental group's contentions should simply be tossed for lack or merit or admissibility.

"They had some good questions, some insightful questions," said Zeller, the clean air campaign coordinator for the group. "I think they're considering our arguments."

Duke was represented by at least three lawyers at the hearing while the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which is overseeing Duke's petition to operate a new nuclear plant here, had at least three lawyers of its own taking turns responding to Zeller's arguments, often with highly technical answers referring to sections and subsections of the NRC's guidelines or the thousands of pages in Duke's voluminous operating license application.

One of the judges, Paul Ryerson, said the panel would most likely issue its decision by Sept. 22.

Among the decisions the panel has to make is whether or not the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League has the legal ability to intervene in the licensing process and whether any of the claims it's making warrant further evaluation. The group has to present at least one admissible issue for their participation to go any further, an NRC spokesman explained.

Among the many issues raised in the challenge, the group claims the nuclear power equipment Duke plans to use have not yet been certified by the NRC and that many environmental issues have not yet been addressed in detail, such as how the nuclear plant's water needs will be met during times of drought, how the Broad River will be impacted by warm water discharge, and how Duke plans to address the potential for natural disasters such as earthquakes.

Duke's lawyers argued during their hearing that the thousands of pages of documents they've already filed as part of the licensing process have already answered each of the group's claims.

"Water supply is a real contentious issue," Zeller said. "I think the NRC rules and regulations have blinders on them to stop issues like drought from being fully considered."

Rita Sipe, a Duke spokeswoman, said challenges like these are a part of the licensing process and actually were welcome.

"We believe the contentions raised have been addressed through our application and other avenues," she said. "We feel we have addressed every one of these contentions."

Duke's experts looked at 81 years worth of river data and it's confident there's enough water to meet the plant's needs, she said.

Construction of the nuclear plant still is a long way off. The licensing process, which officially started in February, is expected to last about 42 months. While some demolition work has been done at the site, no actual construction will begin until the licensing process is complete.

While it wasn't clear how many people were watching, the cameras surrounding the courtroom were streaming the proceedings on the Internet so people could watch from anywhere in the world. The Internet access to the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board hearing was somewhat novel, as it had only been done a few times before.