A nuclear trade association is calling on the Supreme Court to clear the way for a temporary waste storage site in West Texas.
In a “friend of the court” brief docketed last week, the Nuclear Energy Institute asked the justices to overturn a 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that blocked the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s license for an above-ground storage facility in the Permian Basin. The site would serve as a temporary repository for nuclear waste from around the country, after efforts stalled to establish a permanent facility in Nevada’s Yucca Mountain.
NEI warned that the lower court’s ruling “will have far-reaching and destabilizing consequences for the nuclear industry if allowed to remain standing.”
The amicus brief from NEI, which represents companies that run commercial nuclear power plants and store spent fuel, supports the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s challenge to the 5th Circuit’s 2023 ruling that rejected the Texas site.
