What to do with the pile is increasing of nuclear waste

By Mark Sherman

Washington (AP) – The Supreme Court will hear arguments on Wednesday in a struggle for storage plans Nuclear waste At the websites in Rural Texas and New Mexico.

President Joe Biden’s administration and A privately licensed company For the Unit in Texas he appealed to a decision of the 5th Court of Appeal of the US Circuit, which found that the nuclear regulatory commission and exceeded the authority in granting the license. The result of the case will affect the plans for a similar facility in New Mexico About 40 miles (65 kilometers) away.

In this issue, the administration of President Donald Trump remains with the opinions of his predecessor, even with Texas Gov. Greg AbbottA republican ally of Trump on the other side.

Putting for temporary storage sites is part of complicated policy of the search so far useless for a permanent underground storage facility.

Here’s what to know about the case:

Where is the nuclear fuel now stored?

Approximate 100,000 tons (90,000 metric tons) spent fuelPart of this in the 1980s accumulates on current sites and former nuclear plants at national level and grow by over 2,000 tonnes (1,800 metric tons) per year. The waste was meant to be held there temporarily before being deposited underground.

A plan to build a national storage installation to the northern -West of Las Vegas at Yucca Mountain it was overwhelmed Due to the firm opposition from most residents and officials in Nevada.

The nuclear regulatory commission said that temporary storage sites are needed, because existing nuclear installations remain without a room. The presence of the fuel spent also complicates the plans for decommissioning some plants, the department of justice said in the judicial documents.

Where would it go?

The NRC has granted the Texas license for the Interim Storage Partners LLC for an installation that could take up to 5,000 metric tons of used nuclear fuel rods from power plants and 231 million tonnes of other radioactive waste. The facility will be built next to an existing garbage site in Andrews County for low waste, such as protective clothing and other materials that have been exposed to radioactivity. Andrews County’s website is about 350 miles (560 kilometers) west of Dallas, near the Mexico Mexico State line.

The facility in New Mexico would be in the Lea county, in the southern part of the state, near Carlsbad. NRC has awarded a license for the site to Holtec International.

The licenses would allow 40 years of storage, although opponents claim that the installations would be open to the deadlock for permanent storage.

The political opposition is bipartid

Republicans and democrats, environmental groups and oil and gas industry are opposed to all temporary sites.

Abbott leads Texas’s opposition to the storage facility. New Mexico Democrat Governor. Michelle Lujan Grisham It also opposes the planned installation for its state.

A short led by the Republican senator from Texas Ted Cruz, on behalf of several parliamentarians, names the nuclear waste considered for the two installations an “attractive target for terrorists” and claims that it is too risky to build the installation above the Permian basin, the huge oil and natural gas region.

The elected leaders of the communities on the routes that the fuel spent in New Mexico will probably take, and Texas oppose.

What are the problems before the court?

Justice will consider whether, as NRC claims, the states have lost their right to oppose the license decisions, as they refused to join the Commission’s procedures.

Two other federal courts of appeal, from Denver and Washington, who weighed the same problem. Only the 5th circuit allowed the case to be accommodated.

The second problem is whether the federal law allows the Commission to licensing temporary storage sites. The opponents are based on a decision of the Supreme Court of 2022, which held that the Congress must act specificly when it wants to provide an agency to regulate a problem of major national significance. In the pronouncement of Texas, the 5th circuit agreed that what to do with the nuclear waste of the nation is the kind of “major question” with which the Congress must speak directly.

But the Department of Justice claimed that the Commission has a long -term authority to cope with nuclear waste that reaches the 1954 atomic energy law.

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Originally published: March 5, 2025 at 12:49 pm est