Zack Budryk
The Hill
October 4, 2024
The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to settle a dispute over the temporary storage of nuclear waste in West Texas that could upend decades of federal nuclear policy.
Last year, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, considered among the most conservative in the nation, ruled against the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s (NRC) licensure of an Andrews County, Texas, facility to store spent fuel.
The temporary site, which would be the first of its kind in the nation, got the NRC’s sign-off in 2021.
The Biden administration and the joint venture behind the planned temporary site, Interim Storage Partners LLC, appealed to the Supreme Court, arguing that the Fifth Circuit’s ruling contradicted precedent under the Atomic Energy Act as well as rulings by two other appeals courts.
U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar, in the Biden administration’s writ to the court, wrote that the lower court’s decision could have major implications for the nuclear industry and for the NRC’s powers to license storage.