A federal court case challenging one of two proposed commercial interim storage facilities for spent nuclear fuel remained on hold Wednesday as the Nuclear Regulatory Commission worked through its licensing review, the agency said in a status report Tuesday.
NRC told the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals that Holtec International’s application to build an interim storage site in Lea County, N.M. “remains under consideration,” according to a court-ordered status report filed Tuesday. The commission has previously said that the joint suit against the proposed Holtec site filed by a coalition of anti-nuclear groups led by Beyond Nuclear should remain on hold until agency proceedings wrap up.
The anti-nukers’ suit, initially filed in 2020, asks a judge to roll back licensing proceedings for the proposed Holtec site.
With a final licensing decision on the proposed Holtec site not due until January, it could be a while before the case spins up again. An NRC spokesperson told Weapons Complex Morning Briefing Oct. 14 that the agency was on track to finish up an environmental review of the site in November — a crucial step towards a licensing call.
Meanwhile, another case challenging a similar proposed site planned for west Texas by Interim Storage Partners (ISP) is also threatening to drag out into the new year. A draft schedule of proceedings filed Oct. 12 suggests that final briefings in that case wouldn’t be due until June 2022. Initial arguments in the ISP case, which has itself been on pause since March, would begin in January. At deadline Thursday for Morning Briefing a judge had yet to rule on the draft schedule.
