Supreme Court Asked to Weigh Nuclear Waste Storage License Case

The US Supreme Court should review a lower court’s decision preventing an anti-nuclear nonprofit from challenging the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s license for a nuclear waste storage site in New Mexico, the nonprofit says.

The US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit upheld “a highly unorthodox NRC license conditionally authorizing Holtec to store federally-owned nuclear waste—conduct that the NRC concedes currently violates the Nuclear Waste Policy Act,” Beyond Nuclear Inc. said in its petition for writ of certiorari.

Beyond Nuclear in its 2023 opening brief challenged the NRC’s refusal to terminate a licensing proceeding and deny an application by Holtec International to store nuclear waste generated by commercial reactors at its facility in Lea County, N.M.

The DC Circuit in August 2024 held that the NRC reasonably blocked Beyond Nuclear and environmental groups from getting involved in the administrative proceeding over the license.

That meant the nonprofit would never get a day in court to challenge the license condition, Beyond Nuclear said in its Supreme Court petition docketed Nov. 4. That’s because entities can’t be considered proper parties in litigation if they didn’t participate at the administrative level.

By doing so, the DC Circuit effectively “assisted the NRC to shatter” Administrative Procedure Act guardrails meant to ensure judicial review, the petition said.

Though Holtec recently abandoned its plans to operate the facility, it still has the license and “is free to change its mind and resume the project,” Beyond Nuclear said.

Recent Related Litigation

Holtec’s storage facility has been the subject of other litigation, which may affect Beyond Nuclear’s case.

The Fifth Circuit in October tossed a nuclear waste storage case concerning Holtec’s facility in New Mexico, following the Supreme Court’s decision about Interim Storage Partners LLC’s storage facility in Texas.

The NRC in 2021 issued a license to Interim, which Texas and Fasken Land and Minerals Ltd. asked the Fifth Circuit to vacate. The appellate court did so, but the Supreme Court reversed that judgment in June.

The high court didn’t get to the merits because the case came down to whether Texas and Fasken were proper parties since there was dispute over their participation in the underlying administrative proceedings. The Supreme Court ruled they weren’t parties, so the Fifth Circuit dismissed the case in September.

Fasken had filed a different lawsuit to get rid of the license issued to Holtec, which the Fifth Circuit also vacated. The case was then thrown out per the June high court decision.

Those cases were about whether the NRC could issue a license to a private party for the interim storage of nuclear waste. That’s different from the issue at the center of the latest petition from Beyond Nuclear, which asks if a license can conditionally allow interim storage of federally-owned nuclear waste, the nonprofit said.

The high court may consider its June ruling on party eligibility requirements when deciding whether to hear Beyond Nuclear’s case.

The nonprofit is represented by Harmon, Curran, Spielberg & Eisenberg LLP and the Turner Environmental Law Clinic.

The case is Beyond Nuclear Inc. v. NRC, U.S., No. 25-540, petition docketed 11/4/25.