The Supreme Court on Wednesday reversed a lower court ruling that struck down a federal license for a temporary nuclear waste storage site in Texas’ Permian Basin.
In a 6-3 ruling led by Justice Brett Kavanaugh, the high court rejected a lower bench’s argument that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission had improperly authorized the private company Interim Storage Partners to build the facility in the prolific Texas oil patch, located far from any nuclear reactor.
Neither Texas nor Fasken Land and Minerals had properly participated in proceedings before the commission, and so neither party was eligible for judicial review, Kavanaugh found.
“For that reason, we reverse the judgment of the Court of Appeals and do not decide the underlying statutory dispute over whether the Nuclear Regulatory Commission possesses authority to license private off-site storage facilities,” he wrote.
Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote a dissent, joined by Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito.
The decision in the consolidated case NRC v. Texas and Interim Storage Partners v. Texas is a blow for the Lone Star State, which had argued that federal law did not allow the commission to license a private company to store thousands of metric tons of spent fuel that would be transported hundreds of miles from nuclear power plants.
Texas had also warned that after efforts to deposit waste in Nevada’s Yucca Mountain fell apart, the spent fuel could be kept in aboveground storage in the temporary facility for decades.
The NRC had claimed that Texas did not have grounds to challenge the approval because it had not formally participated in licensing proceedings before the commission.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with Texas in 2023, ruling that the state could still challenge the decision under an exception to federal law.
