U.S. Supreme Court to weigh future of nuclear fuel storage sites in New Mexico and Texas

The U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments March 5 in a Texas case with implications for a private firm’s plan to build a temporary storage facility for spent nuclear fuel in New Mexico.

Justices will consider whether federal law gives the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) the power to license temporary nuclear waste storage at sites far from the reactors where the spent fuel was created.

New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez filed a brief in the case expressing the state’s long-standing opposition to a company’s plan to build such a storage facility in southeastern New Mexico.

“The hardships that would be endured by New Mexicans in the construction of these nuclear waste storage facilities in and near our state would be monumental,” Torrez said last week in a written statement.

The NRC approved a permit in 2023 that would allow Holtec International LLC to build an above-ground storage facility between Hobbs and Carlsbad to store up to 500 canisters of spent nuclear fuel. New Mexico is suing the NRC to block the project.

The case up for consideration before the Supreme Court addresses a similar storage facility in Texas, but the outcome may decide the fate of the New Mexico project.

Justices in November agreed to reconsider a 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that blocked the NRC’s license for a temporary storage facility in Texas’ Permian Basin proposed by Interim Storage Partners LLC. Texas opposes the project and sued the NRC to block it.

The amicus brief filed by Torrez and Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel on Jan. 22 supports the appellate court ruling and argues that states should have a voice in deciding whether spent nuclear fuel should be stored within their borders.

“The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) issued Holtec and ISP licenses to operate their facilities on 40-year renewable terms over objections from the host states and denied every attempt by opponents to intervene in the proceedings,” the brief argues.

The Holtec and ISP sites are located only 40 miles apart in the Permian Basin, “home to the most productive oil field in the world and one of the nation’s most threatened aquifers,” the brief argues.

The license issued by the NRC in May 2023 would allow Florida-based Holtec to receive and store up to 8,680 metric tons of spent fuel for 40 years.

Holtec officials have said they plan to eventually store up to 10,000 canisters throughout 19 expansions phases, according to the NRC. The regulatory agency would have to approve a license amendment for each expansion, pending NRC safety and environment reviews.

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham opposes the facility and signed legislation in 2023 intended to block the project. U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., has said it is misleading to call the facility “temporary” while the nation lacks a permanent place to store spent nuclear fuel.

The brief filed by New Mexico and Michigan is one of nine amici briefs filed in the case by groups that include the Permian Basin Petroleum Association, the New Mexico Farm and Livestock Bureau, Utah and six other states, and Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas.