Latest news with #nuclearwaste
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
US Supreme Court clears the way for nuclear waste storage in Texas
AUSTIN (KXAN) — The U.S. Supreme Court reversed a ruling by a federal appeals court Thursday, clearing the way for plans to temporarily store nuclear waste at a facility in West Texas. The 6-3 vote came in the case, Nuclear Regulatory Commission v. Texas, where the U.S. Court of Appeals in the Fifth Circuit sided with Texas and Fasken Oil and Ranch in their suit against the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to prevent the temporary waste site from being built. The justices reversed the Fifth Circuit ruling. But the Court did not decide the underlying dispute about whether the NRC has the power to license private storage facilities for nuclear waste. While the Court's decision is not a final ruling in favor of the licenses, it clears a key hurdle for the waste storage plans. Texas argued that federal law requires nuclear waste to be stored on site at reactors in the absence of a permanent storage site. Interim Storage Partners, LLC, the company trying to build the storage site in West Texas, argues that the law cited by the state — the Nuclear Waste Policy Act — does nothing to forbid the creation of a temporary storage site. 'The Fifth Circuit held that the NWPA 'doesn't permit' the ISP license, ISP App. 30a, but cited no statutory provision that says that. Nor do respondents. There is none,' the ISP writes in its response. Currently, high-level nuclear waste generated from nuclear power plants is stored at the reactors themselves to avoid transporting the fuel. High-level nuclear waste is highly radioactive and dangerous fuel, which no longer has a fast enough fission process to be used to generate energy, but still poses a threat. Because no federal waste storage site has been built, the NRC hoped to create a temporary storage site in West Texas. Opponents to the site, including the state, said that it would likely become a permanent site with no existing alternative. According to the NRC's website, high-level waste only becomes harmless after being stored for thousands of years. The concern is not only over storage, but transportation. Transporting spent nuclear fuel requires strict oversight and protection. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, the most radioactive material is transported in casks, which are containers that are designed to withstand collisions, being dropped onto a steel spike, burning in gasoline for 30 minutes and withstanding being submerged in water for eight hours. The state also expressed worries about the site's location near oil fields in West Texas. Gov. Greg Abbott submitted comments in the suit that said the nuclear waste site could inflict significant damage to the oil fields if an act of terrorism or an accident affected the site. Texas has strived to lead the nation in nuclear energy production, with plans for the construction of several new uranium mines in South Texas and power plants purchased by large tech companies, like Google and Amazon. Because nuclear power can produce energy without carbon emissions, it is a popular alternative to fossil fuel-heavy sources like coal. But after nuclear disasters abroad and in the U.S. at power plants, including the Three Mile Island plant in Pennsylvania, creation of new nuclear power plants has slowed significantly in the U.S. Meanwhile, foreign powers, like China and India, are ramping up production. Both the Biden and Trump administrations made efforts to bolster nuclear energy in the U.S. by building new reactors and restarting old ones. Recent executive orders by President Donald Trump take measures, including speeding up the licensing process through the Department of Energy, beginning construction on 10 new reactors by 2030 and creating reactors for artificial intelligence data centers and domestic military bases. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
7 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Nuclear waste in Texas? What to know about latest Supreme Court ruling that allows it
In a recent ruling, the Supreme Court has made it easier to consider the possibility of nuclear waste storage on the Texas-New Mexico border. The high court rejected challenges to a nuclear waste storage site in the area on Wednesday, June 18, marking a victory for the federal government after a decade of legal wrangling by the state of Texas and the oil industry. The ruling, in a 6-3 decision, noted that they cannot challenge the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's approval of the site because they "hadn't sufficiently participated in the commission's licensing proceedings." Three conservative justices − Neil Gorsuch, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito − dissented. The Texas and oil industry objected, to no avail, to the waste being stored above ground in the Permian Basin, a prominent oil field region known for its underpopulated, wide-open spaces in southwestern Texas. In 2021, the commission approved temporary storage sites in Texas due to nuclear power plants running out of space, and the planned permanent underground storage facility in Nevada's Yucca Mountain. The federal government argued the storage was temporary while a permanent location was constructed. According to USA reporting, Nevada's Yucca Mountain was the only authorized site where the Department of Energy could permanently store spent nuclear fuel; the Obama administration effectively nixed the project over political and environmental concerns. No timeline was provided for when such waste could be stored in the region. The Trump administration publicly defended the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's authority to approve temporary sites and noted it will try to revive the Yucca Mountain option as a place to store nuclear waste. Beginning in the 1950s, the U.S. began large-scale nuclear power generation using nuclear fuel in reactors, along with an ongoing political debate over the disposal of spent fuel, once it can no longer efficiently generate electricity. The 1982 Nuclear Waste Policy Act established a permanent repository for nuclear power plant waste, which is still considered hazardous for thousands of years. USA Today contributed to this story. Kristian Jaime is the Top Story Reporter for the El Paso Times and is reachable at Kjaime@ This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: Nuclear waste in Texas? What to know about Supreme Court ruling
LBCI
19-06-2025
- Politics
- LBCI
IAEA Director General praises Lebanon's accession to Nuclear Waste Safety Convention
The Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, congratulated Lebanon on officially joining the Joint Convention on the Safety of Spent Fuel Management and on the Safety of Radioactive Waste Management. In a statement posted on his official X account, Grossi, who serves as the depositary of the convention, welcomed Lebanon's accession and described it as a reflection of the country's commitment to managing nuclear waste safely and responsibly. Lebanon's accession became official after its Permanent Representative to the United Nations Office and international organizations in Vienna, Ambassador Ibrahim Assaf, formally handed over the accession document to Grossi on Wednesday. The meeting was attended by Dr. Bilal Nsouli, Director of the Lebanese Atomic Energy Commission, and Bashir Azzam, adviser to the Lebanese mission. The convention will apply in Lebanon primarily to the safe management of radioactive waste from civilian uses, particularly in the medical sector, where radiation-based technologies are in use.
Al Arabiya
18-06-2025
- Politics
- Al Arabiya
Supreme Court Clears the Way for Temporary Nuclear Waste Storage in Texas and New Mexico
The Supreme Court on Wednesday restarted plans to temporarily store nuclear waste at sites in rural Texas and New Mexico even as the nation is at an impasse over a permanent solution. The justices by a 6–3 vote reversed a federal appeals court ruling that invalidated the license granted by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to a private company for the facility in southwest Texas. The outcome should also reinvigorate plans for a similar facility in New Mexico roughly 40 miles (65 kilometers) away. The federal appeals court in New Orleans had ruled in favor of the opponents of the facilities. The licenses would allow the companies to operate the facilities for 40 years with the possibility of a 40-year renewal. The court's decision is not a final ruling in favor of the licenses, but it removes a major roadblock. Roughly 100,000 tons (90,000 metric tons) of spent fuel–some of it dating from the 1980s–is piling up at current and former nuclear plant sites nationwide and growing by more than 2,000 tons (1,800 metric tons) a year. The waste was meant to be kept there temporarily before being deposited deep underground. The NRC has said that the temporary storage sites are needed because existing nuclear plants are running out of room. The presence of the spent fuel also complicates plans to decommission some plants, the Justice Department said in court papers. Plans for a permanent underground storage facility at Yucca Mountain northwest of Las Vegas are stalled because of staunch opposition from most Nevada residents and officials. The NRC's appeal was filed by the Biden administration and maintained by the Trump administration. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, and New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, a Democrat, are leading bipartisan opposition to the facilities in their states. The NRC granted the Texas license to Interim Storage Partners, based in Andrews, Texas, for a facility that could take up to 5,500 tons (5,000 metric tons) of spent nuclear fuel rods from power plants and 231 million tons (210 million metric tons) of other radioactive waste. The facility would be built next to an existing dump site in Andrews County for low-level waste, such as protective clothing and other material that has been exposed to radioactivity. The Andrews County site is about 350 miles (560 kilometers) west of Dallas near the Texas–New Mexico state line. The New Mexico facility would be in Lea County in the southeastern part of the state near Carlsbad. The NRC gave a license for the site to Holtec International, based in Jupiter, Florida.
Reuters
18-06-2025
- Politics
- Reuters
US Supreme Court sides with federal agency on nuclear waste facility license
WASHINGTON, June 18 (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday against the state of Texas and oil industry interests in their challenge to Nuclear Regulatory Commission authority to license certain nuclear waste storage facilities. The 6-3 ruling, authored by conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh, reversed a lower court's decision declaring a license awarded by the NRC to a company called Interim Storage Partners to operate a nuclear waste storage in western Texas unlawful. The NRC is the federal agency that regulates nuclear energy in the United States. The NRC issued a license in 2021 to Interim Storage Partners - a joint venture of France-based Orano and Dallas-based Waste Control Specialists - to build a nuclear waste storage facility in Andrews County in Texas, near the New Mexico border. The U.S. government and the company had appealed the decision by the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that the NRC lacked authority to issue the license based on a law called the Atomic Energy Act of 1954. The appeal was brought under Democratic former President Joe Biden and was continued under Republican President Donald Trump. The government argued that Congress gave the NRC the authority to license temporary off-site nuclear waste storage facilities. The Interim Storage Partners license was challenged by Fasken Land and Minerals, a Texas-based oil and gas extraction organization, and the nonprofit Permian Basin Coalition of Land and Royalty Owners and Operators. Texas and New Mexico later joined the challenge, arguing the facility posed environmental risks to the states. The case brought by New Mexico subsequently was dismissed. "To qualify as a party to a licensing proceeding, the Atomic Energy Act requires that one either be a license applicant or have successfully intervened in the licensing proceeding," Kavanaugh wrote in the ruling. "In this case, however, Texas and Fasken are not license applicants, and they did not successfully intervene in the licensing proceeding. So neither was a party eligible to obtain judicial review in the 5th Circuit," he wrote. During March 5 arguments in the case, some of the Supreme Court's conservative justices seemed wary of the NRC's claim that the licensing arrangements at issue would be temporary. The license issued to Interim Storage Partners was set to last for 40 years, with the possibility of being renewed. A proposal to permanently store the nation's spent nuclear fuel at a federal facility at Yucca Mountain in Nevada has been stalled following decades of opposition in that state. The Supreme Court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, has limited the authority of various federal agencies including the Environment Protection Agency and Securities and Exchange Commission in various rulings in recent years. The court last year overturned its own 1984 precedent that had given deference to government agencies in interpreting laws they administer. Since returning to the presidency in January, Trump has moved to dismantle various agencies as part of his campaign to slash the federal workforce and remake the government.
