SCOTUS to hear NRC/dumps’ appeal

[Tee shirt design by Noel Marquez, co-founder of Alliance for Environmental Strategies of southeastern New Mexico. Holtec has targeted a site midway between Hobbs and Carlsbad, NM for its CISF. ISP has targeted the Waste Control Specialists, LLC site — a national “low-level” radioactive waste dump — just 0.3 miles from the NM state line in Andrews County, TX, for its highly radioactive waste CISF.]

As reported by the AP, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) has granted certiorari — agreed to hear — appeals from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Department of Justice, and high-level radioactive waste dump companies, regarding consolidated interim storage facility (CISF) schemes in Texas (Interim Storage Partners, LLC — ISP) and New Mexico (Holtec International).

A three-judge panel of the 5th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in New Orleans, Louisiana, in late August 2023, ruled in favor of challenges brought by the State of Texas and Fasken Land and Minerals/Permian Basin Land and Royalty Owners, against the license approved by NRC for ISP’s CISF. Shortly after the ruling, Fasken/PBLRO urged the three-judge panel to also vacate NRC’s license approval for the Holtec CISF in NM, given the close similarity with ISP. The panel did so.

NRC, DOJ, ISP, and Holtec appealed those rulings en banc, to the entire 5th Circuit panel of judges. In August 2024, by a 9 to 7 vote, the 5th Circuit, en banc, sustained its three-judge panel’s earlier rulings.

The CISF proponents then appealed to SCOTUS. On October 4, 2024, SCOTUS agreed to review the cases.

Beyond Nuclear and environmental allies — Sierra Club, and Don’t Waste Michigan et al. (a national environmental grassroots coalition) — have also resisted these CISFs from the get-go, including filing federal appeals at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. However, the D.C. Circuit Court ruled against all opposition, including Fasken’s, validating NRC’s license approvals for both CISF licenses.*

Similarly, the State of New Mexico challenged the CISF licenses in the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver, Colorado, but lost.

Opponents to NRC’s CISF licenses must now defend their 5th Circuit court victory before SCOTUS. Oral arguments are expected in early 2025, and a ruling by July.

* Diane Curran of Washington, D.C., and Mindy Goldstein of Atlanta, GA, serve as legal counsel for Beyond Nuclear. Wally Taylor of Cedar Rapids, IA serves as legal counsel for Sierra Club’s Rio Grande and Lone Star Chapters. Terry Lodge of Toledo, OH serves as legal counsel for Don’t Waste MI, et al. In house counsel, Monica Perales, and outside counsel Kanner & Whiteley, serve Fasken.