New Orleans court had originally ruled against plans
The US Supreme Court issued a ruling on 18 June that would allow the temporary storage of nuclear waste in West Texas and New Mexico.
The justices, by a 6-3 vote, reversed a federal appeals court ruling that invalidated the licence granted by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to Interim Storage Partners (ISP), based in Andrews, Texas.
That licence was for a facility that could take up to 55,000 tonnes of spent nuclear fuel rods from nuclear power plants and 210 million tonnes of other radioactive waste.
The facility would be built next to an existing facility in Andrews County for low-level waste such as protective clothing and other material that has been exposed to radioactivity.
A similar licence was issued to Holtec International for a facility near Carlsbad in Lea County, New Mexico. The court ruling could reinvigorate plans for that facility.
The federal appeals court in New Orleans had originally ruled in favour of the opponents of the facilities.
The licences would allow ISP And Holtec to operate the facilities for 40 years, with the possibility of a 40-year renewal.
Almost 100,000 tonnes of spent fuel is being held at current and former nuclear plant sites nationwide – an amount that is growing by almost 2,000 tonnes a year.
The spent fuel was meant to be kept at these sites temporarily before being deposited in a deep geologic repository.
Plans for such a repository at Yucca Mountain, northwest of Las Vegas, have stalled because of opposition from most Nevada residents and officials.
Press reports said the court’s decision is not a final ruling in favour of the licences, but it removes a major roadblock. Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s majority opinion focused on technical procedural rules in concluding that Texas and a major landowner in southwest Texas forfeited their right to challenge the NRC licensing decision in federal court.
