The U.S. Supreme Court this week refused to hear an environmental watchdogs’ bid to stop the storage of spent nuclear fuel at a California nuclear power plant under decommissioning.
The highest court in the land, an independent branch of the federal government, denied on Monday San Diego-based Public Watchdogs’ petition for review of a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decision. The appellate court in January scrapped a lawsuit against the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in which the antinukers sought to stop Holtec International’s spent fuel management at San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS).
Public Watchdogs argued in its June petition to the Supreme Court that the Ninth Circuit unfairly judged that, under the Hobbs Act, the group couldn’t challenge NRC in the appellate court.
The Ninth Circuit said that Public Watchdogs did not demonstrate that NRC “abdicated its duty to ensure that spent nuclear fuel is stored safely at SONGS.” The commission’s environmental impact statement for continued storage of spent fuel at SONGS addressed all of the group’s concerns, the court said at the time.
San Onofre, located along the California coast about midway between Los Angeles and San Diego, is currently being decommissioned by Southern California Edison (SCE). Camden, N.J., nuclear services company Holtec International is managing spent fuel storage at the site’s independent spent fuel storage installation (ISFSI).
SONGS shut down for good in 2013, and SCE began decommissioning in 2020. The process should take up to a decade to complete, the company has said.
