Midland Reporter-Telegram
October 5, 2024
A dispute over nuclear waste being sent to the Permian Basin is headed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Justices agreed Friday to review a ruling by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that found that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission exceeded its authority under federal law in granting a license to a private company to store spent nuclear fuel at a dump in West Texas for 40 years.
The NRC granted the Texas license to Interim Storage Partners LLC for a facility that could take up to 5,000 metric tons of spent nuclear fuel rods from power plants and 231 million tons of other radioactive waste. The facility would be built next to an existing dump site in Andrews County that currently contains low-level waste such as protective clothing and other material that has been exposed to radioactivity. A second license, to Holtec International for a similar temporary storage site in Lea County, New Mexico, was also vacated by the 5th Circuit Court.
Monica Perales, secretary of the Permian Basin Coalition and attorney for Fasken Oil & Ranch, who has spearheaded opposition to the high-level nuclear waste bring brought to the area, reacted to the decision.
“For years, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and two private corporations have attempted to force Texas and New Mexico into accepting stockpiled radioactive waste. Despite overwhelming evidence to disqualify the proposed waste sites, resolutions and state bans, the NRC, Interim Storage Partners, and Holtec International continue pursuing their plan to consolidate quite possibly the most radioactive material on the planet, transport it cross-country by barge and rail, for indefinite storage in a region called the Permian Basin — an agriculturally rich area that also happens to be the nation’s biggest producer of oil and gas.