Environmental groups cannot use a lawsuit centered on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s conduct during the licensing of a commercial interim storage site for spent nuclear fuel as a backdoor for canceling the license, the company in charge of the project argued this week in court.
The environmentalists, led by anti-nuclear group Don’t Waste Michigan, are suing NRC over its decision to reject challenges the groups filed with the commission in 2018 to Interim Storage Partners’ (ISP) proposed site, but “none of the Petitioners’ briefs even discuss those orders,” ISP said in a brief filed Tuesday with the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals.
“The issue on appeal to this Court is whether the NRC reasonably applied its adjudicatory rules and procedures — in light of that, it is bizarre for Petitioners not to even mention the end results of those adjudications,” ISP said.
Also in their joint suit, the coalition of seven environmental groups and minerals company Fasken Land & Minerals claimed that the commission violated the National Environmental Policy Act when it licensed the proposed site. The court has no jurisdiction to rule on that argument, ISP said, and even if it did, it should still reject the suit.
Prior to ISP’s filing this week, the NRC on June 6 asked the D.C. Circuit Court to dismiss the environmentalists’ lawsuit, pushing back — like ISP — on claims that the agency had violated federal law when it licensed the proposed interim storage site.
As of Friday, final briefs were due to the court on Aug. 10. The case was consolidated in the D.C. circuit in February 2021.
Meanwhile, NRC is fighting similar court battles against New Mexico and Texas over the proposed site. The agency has asked judges in both the 10th and Fifth Circuit Courts of Appeals to scrap those cases — so far, neither has.
If ISP, a joint venture between Waste Control Specialists and Orano USA, manages to build its proposed interim storage site in Andrews County, Texas, the company has said it could eventually hold around 40,000 tons of spent fuel during its 40-year license.
