The Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s power to authorize temporary nuclear waste storage facilities will soon face Supreme Court scrutiny.
On Friday, the justices agreed to reconsider a lower court ruling that blocked the regulatory agency’s license for a private company to build a temporary storage facility in Texas’ Permian Basin.
The appeal is part of the agency’s ongoing defense of its ability to approve stand-in storage facilities until the federal government establishes a permanent waste repository. The government’s long-term plans to store spent nuclear fuel within Nevada’s Yucca Mountain have remained stalled.
The Supreme Court will review a ruling last year from the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which blocked the NRC’s license for Interim Storage Partners to build its facility, handing a win to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.
NRC argued that Texas lacked power to sue because the state had not participated in formal agency licensing proceedings for the proposed facility. Paxton, a Republican, had successfully argued before the 5th Circuit that the state had standing to oppose the facility because of the degree of risk it faced from potential contamination from the project and because the state had filed comments opposing the site.
The Supreme Court consolidated the case with a separate appeal brought by Interim Storage Partners.
