US Supreme Court to decide if nuclear waste facility can be built in Texas

AUSTIN (KXAN) — The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to decide in the coming days if a facility to store high-level nuclear waste can be built in West Texas.

The case, Nuclear Regulatory Commission v. Texas, comes after the U.S. Court of Appeals in the Fifth Circuit sided with Texas and Fasken Oil and Ranch in their suit against the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to prevent the temporary waste site from being built.

Texas is arguing that federal law requires nuclear waste to be stored on site at reactors in the absence of a permanent storage site. Interim Storage Partners, LLC, the company trying to build the storage site in West Texas, argues that the law cited by the state — the Nuclear Waste Policy Act — does nothing to forbid the creation of a temporary storage site.

"The Fifth Circuit held that the NWPA 'doesn’t permit' the ISP license, ISP App. 30a, but cited no statutory provision that says that. Nor do respondents. There is none," the ISP writes in its response.

Currently, high-level nuclear waste generated from nuclear power plants is stored at the reactors themselves to avoid transporting the fuel. High-level nuclear waste is highly radioactive and dangerous fuel, which no longer has a fast enough fission process to be used to generate energy, but still poses a threat.

Because no federal waste storage site has been built, the NRC hoped to create a temporary storage site in West Texas. Opponents to the site, including the state, said that it would likely become a permanent site with no existing alternative. According to the NRC's website, high-level waste only becomes harmless after being stored for thousands of years.

The concern is not only over storage, but transportation. Transporting spent nuclear fuel requires strict oversight and protection. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, the most radioactive material is transported in casks -- which are containers that are designed to withstand collisions, being dropped onto a steel spike, burning in gasoline for 30 minutes and withstanding being submerged in water for eight hours.

The state also expressed worries about the site's location near oil fields in West Texas. Gov. Greg Abbott submitted comments in the suit that said the nuclear waste site could inflict significant damage to the oil fields if an act of terrorism or an accident affected the site.

Texas has strived to lead the nation in nuclear energy production, with plans for the construction of several new uranium mines in South Texas and power plants purchased by large tech companies, like Google and Amazon.

Because nuclear power can produce energy without carbon emissions, it is a popular alternative to fossil fuel-heavy sources like coal. But after nuclear disasters abroad and in the U.S. at power plants, including the Three Mile Island plant in Pennsylvania, creation of new nuclear power plants has slowed significantly in the U.S. Meanwhile, foreign powers, like China and India, are ramping up production.

Both the Biden and Trump administrations made efforts to bolster nuclear energy in the U.S. by building new reactors and restarting old ones. Recent executive orders by President Donald Trump take measures, including speeding up the licensing process through the Department of Energy, beginning construction on 10 new reactors by 2030 and creating reactors for artificial intelligence data centers and domestic military bases.