Supreme Court to hear arguments in case commercial interim storage of spent fuel

The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday said it will hear oral arguments in cases arising from a lower-court’s 2023 ban of commercial interim storage of spent nuclear fuel.

The high court had not scheduled arguments as of Friday. 

In a lawsuit filed by Texas, the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in 2023 voided spent-fuel storage licenses granted to Interim Storage Partners and Holtec International by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

The ruling prompted to appeals to the Supreme Court: one by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and one by Interim Storage Partners, a joint venture of Orano USA and Waste Control Specialists, the latter of which would have provided space for a spent-fuel storage site close to its existing low-level waste disposal site near Andrews, Texas.

Those cases now will be consolidated for arguments before the Supreme Court, an independent branch of the federal government. Holtec International planned to build an interim storage facility in near Eddy County, N.M.

The Fifth Circuit ruled that the NRC did not have the legal authority to license the commercial consolidation and storage of spent nuclear fuel at sites other than the power plants that created it. The NRC said that it did have that authority under the Atomic Energy Act, which allows the commission to license three radioactive isotopes found in all spent fuel.

The Fifth Circuit also said that the storage of spent nuclear fuel was a major question, the sort that the Supreme Court in 2022 said must be settled explicitly by Congress.