This story was updated at 2:30 p.m. EDT.
A federal appeals court on Tuesday upheld contested license proceedings for a proposed temporary nuclear waste storage site in southeastern New Mexico, increasing the odds of a potential Supreme Court fight on the issue.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit rejected claims that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission improperly prevented opponents of the planned facility from intervening in its licensing proceedings for the project.
“We deny the petitions because the Commission reasonably declined to admit petitioners’ factual contentions and otherwise complied with statutory and regulatory requirements when rejecting the requests to intervene,” said Judge Neomi Rao, writing the opinion for the court.
