Beyond Nuclear has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to invalidate a Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) license that could allow Holtec International to develop a waste storage site in New Mexico, although Holtec says it no longer plans to do so.
Beyond Nuclear has filed what is known as a writ of certiorari and asked the Supreme Court to hear the case. “Our SCOTUS [Supreme Court of the United States] appeal is critically important,” said Kevin Kamps, radioactive waste specialist at Beyond Nuclear, said in a Nov. 6 press release.
Although Holtec has abandoned the New Mexico site pointing to barriers set up by the state, Kamps said Holtec’s license for an interim waste disposal site still poses a risk to public safety and the environment.
Holtec said last month it would no longer seek a storage facility at the site. Holtec announced the decision five months after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against a challenge to NRC’s authority to license a similar private spent fuel facility in West Texas.
The high court ruled plaintiffs Texas and Fasken Land and Minerals lacked legal standing to pursue the appeal because they were not parties to the original NRC ruling. The Supreme Court, however, did not delve into the merits of Consolidated Interim Storage Facilities to hold spent fuel from reactors across the nation.
Beyond Nuclear said, unlike Texas and Fasken, it has opposed interim storage facilities in NRC administrative proceedings from the start.
Beyond Nuclear also said Holtec’s New Mexico project might be resurrected.
“The company’s surrender could merely be a ruse, a ploy in hopes that a new governor, and new state legislature, in New Mexico would give them a chance to still apply their NRC-approved license in the future,” Kamps said in the release. “Holtec might also sell their license to another company, to again target New Mexico” a Consolidated Interim Storage Facility (CISF).
Holtec’s former New Mexico business partner, the Eddy-Lea Counties Energy Alliance (ELEA), could team up with another company to try to push the CISF forward on the same site. “Holtec could also attempt to transfer siting to another state, such as Arkansas, and apply the license there,” Beyond Nuclear said in the release.