Three Tri-City business leaders sued President Obama on Thursday, asking a federal court to decide if he violated the law over a Yucca Mountain, Nev., radioactive waste repository.

Energy Secretary Steven Chu and the Department of Energy also are named in the lawsuit filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C.

DOE filed a request Feb. 2 to suspend Yucca Mountain's license applications and announced plans to withdraw the license completely within a month. It could be withdrawn "with prejudice," which means it could not be refiled by future administrations.

The repository was planned to hold used commercial nuclear fuel and, of particular concern to the Tri-Cities, some of Hanford's worst radioactive waste after it is treated at the vitrification plant and old irradiated weapons fuel rods.

Bob Ferguson, Bill Lampson and Gary Petersen had planned to wait to file the lawsuit Monday to give the Obama administration 10 days to respond to their request to discuss issues.

But "DOE went public saying independent of what anyone thought, they were moving forward," Ferguson said. "We had acted in good faith and there was no reason to wait."

State of Washington leaders have not made a decision on whether the state also will take legal action.

"We are deeply disturbed by the federal government's departure from a repository plan that dates back to when Sen. Slade Gorton helped develop it in the early 1980s, and particularly, the apparent aim to take one of the nation's options off the table," said Janelle Guthrie, spokeswoman for the state Office of the Attorney General.

The office is consulting with the state Department of Ecology and Gov. Chris Gregoire to develop a legal strategy that will provide the greatest benefit to the state, including the people in the Tri-Cities, Guthrie said.

Tri-City leaders on the advice of K&L Gates attorney Barry Hartman picked a straightforward legal strategy, Ferguson said.

"The law is the law" and the president is not exempt from following it, he said.

Obama opposed opening Yucca Mountain during his campaign, and after he was elected said he would appoint a Blue Ribbon Commission to study options for commercial nuclear waste and high-level weapons waste. The commission was appointed this year and instructed not to consider Yucca Mountain as an option for waste disposal.

Congress named Yucca Mountain as the nation's repository in 2002 and certain steps are required to be followed for the repository under the Nuclear Waste Policy Act, the Tri-City leaders have said.

They are concerned that high-level waste will be permanently stranded at Hanford and the absence of a national repository will derail environmental cleanup work at Hanford, which is highly contaminated with wastes left from producing plutonium for the nation's nuclear weapons program.