The US Supreme Court has upheld a federal plan to store up to 40,000 tons of highly radioactive waste in west Texas, despite strong opposition from local landowners and oil and gas companies. In a 6-3 decision, the justices dismissed a legal challenge to a key license issued by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for the facility.
The court ruled that Texas and a private company, Fasken Land and Minerals, did not have the legal standing to contest the NRC’s decision. Justice Brett Kavanaugh, writing for the majority, emphasized that these challengers had ample opportunities to voice their concerns during the licensing process but failed to do so as formal parties.
The majority opinion was supported by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, Amy Coney Barrett, and Ketanji Brown Jackson. In dissent, Justices Neil Gorsuch, Clarence Thomas, and Samuel Alito argued that Texas should be allowed to challenge the licensing decision, stating that it is unreasonable for a state to be excluded from legal recourse regarding the storage of nuclear waste within its borders.
The proposed site, located near Andrews, Texas, in the Permian Basin, would be the first of its kind to store nuclear waste from commercial reactors nationwide. The nuclear power industry supports the plan, but Texas Governor Greg Abbott and a coalition of local landowners have labeled the facility a public health risk.
The Trump administration defended the NRC’s license after inheriting the legal battle from the Biden administration, maintaining that the NRC’s actions were consistent with over 40 years of practice. Opponents of the plan argue that Congress did not authorize the NRC to license private, off-site storage facilities and insist that federal law mandates nuclear waste to be stored at Yucca Mountain in Nevada, where there has been significant local resistance to development.
The company behind the project, Interim Storage Partners LLC, is a joint venture that plans to transport nuclear waste by rail from across the country and store it in concrete casks. This ruling also strengthens the position of another planned nuclear waste facility in New Mexico, as the same legal arguments were made against that project.
The cases are known as Nuclear Regulatory Commission v. Texas and Interim Storage Partners v. Texas. The Supreme Court’s decision marks a significant moment in the ongoing debate over nuclear waste management in the United States.