Our Reply to Holtec on CISF SCOTUS Appeal

[Photo of the nine Justices currently comprising the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS).]

{UPDATE: On December 15, 2025, Law360 published an article entitled “Beyond Nuclear Pushes Justices To Undo Storage License,” by Ganesh Setty, about the filing of our Reply Brief. The article is behind a paywall, so a link cannot be provided here.}

On December 12, 2025, Beyond Nuclear submitted a REPLY BRIEF in response to Holtec’s BRIEF IN OPPOSITION, filed December 4th, regarding our October 31, 2025 Petition for Certiorari to SCOTUS.

Diane Curran of Harmon, Curran, Spielberg & Eisenberg, LLP in Washington, D.C., and Mindy Goldstein, director of the Turner Environmental Law Clinic at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, serve as Beyond Nuclear’s co-counsel.

Our Petition for Cert. is regarding the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s (NRC) approval of the construction and operating license for Holtec’s consolidated interim storage facility (CISF) for highly radioactive waste targeting New Mexico.

Specifically, our appeal to SCOTUS is in regards to adverse rulings against us by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

We first appealed many years ago to the D.C. Circuit Court against NRC’s approval of Holtec’s dump.

We first warned NRC that such CISF license applications were illegal on their face a decade ago. At that time, Waste Control Specialists, LLC (WCS) — a national “low-level” radioactive waste dump in Texas, was already applying for a CISF license. Holtec would also apply for its CISF license in March 2017, announcing it at a press conference held in a U.S. House of Representatives hearing room on Capitol Hill on Nuclear Fool’s Day (April 1, 2017).

The two dumps are just 40-some miles apart. WCS is now a partner, along with Orano of France, and NAC (Nuclear Assurance Corporation), in Interim Storage Partners, the CISF targeting Andrews County in west Texas, just 0.3 miles (and upstream) from the New Mexico state line, and just a few miles away from Eunice, New Mexico. Holtec’s CISF targets the Eddy and Lea Counties’ border in southeastern New Mexico, midway between Carlsbad and Hobbs.

Also, on December 4th, the attorneys general of New Mexico, Michigan, and Utah submitted an Amici Brief to SCOTUS, in support of Beyond Nuclear’s Petition for Cert.

SCOTUS will likely rule on our Petition for Cert. by spring 2026.