US Efforts to Store Nuclear Waste Poised for High Court Review

An intensifying legal battle over efforts to store the country’s nuclear waste is likely to reach the US Supreme Court following appellate court rulings that split on the issue of whether the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has authority to license two facilities, one of the developers said Thursday.

The most recent ruling arrived Wednesday, when the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit vacated the commission’s license granted to Holtec International Corp. to temporarily store spent nuclear reactor fuel in Lea County, N.M.

In August 2023, the Fifth Circuit vacated an NRC license for a similar facility proposed by Interim ...