The Nuclear Regulatory Commission and groups opposed to the licensing of a Holtec International-owned interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel in New Mexico will meet March in court.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit scheduled oral arguments in the case for March 5 in Washington at 9:30 a.m. Eastern time, according to an order dated Friday.
NRC and the groups opposed to the proposed Holtec facility finished briefing the court last week.
The two-and-a-half-year-old case centers on claims by Fasken Land and Minerals and Permian Basin Land and Royalty Owners, both of Midland, Texas, that Holtec, Jupiter, Fla., was not transparent about the environmental and commercial effects of building an interim storage depot in southeast New Mexico.
The case in the D.C. Circuit is separate from a case in the Fifth Circuit court of appeals, in which a three-judge panel found that the NRC is not legally allowed to license interim storage sites. That includes Holtec’s and another, by a joint venture of Waste Control Specialists and Orano, proposed for Andrews County, Texas.
The NRC licensed both facilities before the Fifth Circuit ruled for the state of Texas, which claimed federal law does not give the commission power to license storage of spent fuel away from the reactors that generate it. NRC maintains that the law is on its side and has asked the entire Fifth Circuit to rehear the case.
