Supreme Court Approves Nuclear Waste Storage in West Texas

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 on Wednesday to allow a private company to temporarily store nuclear waste in West Texas, overturning a lower court’s decision that had blocked the federal license.

The ruling revives a license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) granted in 2021 to Interim Storage Partners (ISP) for a facility outside the town of Andrews, which is about 135 miles northwest of San Angelo.

The license permits ISP to operate the site for 40 years with the possibility of renewal.

In the majority opinion, Justice Brett Kavanaugh said Texas and Fasken Land Minerals, which challenged the license, lacked standing because they were parties to the NRC licensing process. “One must be the license applicant or successfully intervene in order to obtain party status,” Kavanaugh wrote.

Justice Neil Gorsuch dissented, arguing that Texas and Fasken were affected by the storage facility and should have been allowed to challenge it. “Radioactive waste poses risks to the State, its citizens, its lands, air, and waters,” he wrote.

The project has drawn bipartisan opposition from Texas officials. “Texas will not become America’s nuclear waste dumping ground,” Gov. Greg Abbott said in 2021. Sens. Ted Cruz and John Cornyn, along with other state lawmakers, also urged the Court to uphold the lower ruling.

Roughly 100,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel is currently stored at power plant sites nationwide, some dating back to the 1980s. The temporary site in Texas is intended to relieve storage space constraints until a permanent facility is built.

Plans for a long-term storage site at Yucca Mountain in Nevada remain stalled due to local opposition.