A Texas minerals company has joined a federal lawsuit, headlined by an antinuclear group, aimed at holding up the licensing process for a proposed interim nuclear waste storage facility at the Western edge of the Lone Star state.
Fasken Land and Minerals’s June 25 petition against NRC was combined Tuesday with an existing coalition of petitioners including Beyond Nuclear, according to a clerk’s order. The suit challenges Holtec International’s proposed interim storage facility, currently under a federal licensing review.
Fasken filed its challenge in court after NRC rejected last week the company’s final administrative appeals with the agency. Now, the minerals company is asking a federal judge to walk back the commission’s decision and void the site’s licensing.
However, nothing will happen in the case until NRC’s licensing proceedings for the proposed Holtec site are done, the court ruled. NRC requested April 29 that the hold be extended, arguing that until agency-level proceedings were closed the case couldn’t move forward.
Tuesday’s order directed all parties to file new motions within 30 days of the end of the commission’s proceedings.
The commission got an additional stay on the joint petition April 21 after it argued that it couldn’t address all legal challenges to the proposed interim storage site until it wrapped things up with Fasken’s agency-level complaint. Beyond Nuclear’s initial case against NRC has been on standby since October.
Holtec’s proposed site in Lea County, N.M. is one of just two locations being considered for an interim storage facility to house the nation’s spent nuclear fuel. Environmental impact statements for both Holtec’s site and the proposed Interim Storage Partners’ facility in Andrews County, Texas should come down from NRC in July, the agency has said.
