Supreme Court nixes Texas' challenge of nuclear waste license
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An inactive gas flare stands in Andrews, Texas. Photo: Sergio Flores/Bloomberg via Getty Images
The Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that Texas and oil interests can't challenge the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's permit for a privately owned temporary nuclear waste storage site.
Why it matters: The 6-3 ruling is a win for the commission's efforts to make progress in finding a home for high-level spent fuel from commercial reactors — a longtime source of gridlock among federal and state officials.
Zoom in: The court determined that because Texas and Fasken Land and Minerals weren't parties to the NRC's licensing proceeding, they are not entitled to obtain judicial review of the commission's licensing decision of the Interim Storage Partners facility.
- Texas and Fasken "did not successfully intervene in the licensing proceeding," Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote for the majority.
- "For that reason, we reverse the judgment of the Court of Appeals and do not decide the underlying statutory dispute over whether the Nuclear Regulatory Commission possesses authority to license private off-site storage facilities," Kavanaugh wrote.
- The NRC said in a statement that the ruling "upholds the NRC license issued to Interim Storage Partners to construct and operate the ISP facility and explains why the NRC has this authority."
The other side: Justice Neil Gorsuch, joined by Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, dissented.
- Gorsuch called the NRC's decision to license the facility unlawful and the commission's internal rules governing who can participate in a proceeding may be "highly restrictive."
- "Yes, they are 'aggrieved' by the NRC's decision," he wrote. "Radioactive waste poses risks to the state, its citizens, its lands, air, and waters, and it poses dangers as well to a neighbor and its employees."
Context: In August 2023, the Fifth Circuit vacated an NRC license for the Interim Storage Partners facility in Andrews County, Texas, near the New Mexico border.
- The NRC also permitted a temporary waste facility about 40 miles away in southeast New Mexico.
- Temporary facilities are seen by supporters as a step toward centralizing nuclear waste that is currently stored in casks at reactors across the country.
What they're saying: A spokesman for Holtec International, which is developing the proposed New Mexico site, said the ruling "is a significant win for the nuclear industry."
- Even though the court didn't rule on the merits of the proposed sites, "the decision clearly indicates that both common sense and 50 years of history weigh in favor of finding NRC authority to issue licenses for the offsite storage of spent nuclear fuel. Which reaffirms our license in NM," spokesman Patrick O'Brien said in an email.
But New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said she remains staunchly opposed to the Holtec site. State lawmakers passed a law in 2023 seeking to block the effort.
- "Holtec is not welcome in New Mexico, but we've been preparing for this, and I'll do everything I can to prevent them from storing even more radioactive waste here," Lujan Grisham said in a statement.
- New Mexico already hosts the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, an underground repository for castoff nuclear materials generated in weapons production.
Spokespersons for Interim Storage Partners and Texas' attorney general didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.
Editor's note: This story has been updated with reaction from Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham.
