BREAKING NEWS – SUPREME COURT RULES THAT TEXAS HAS NO STANDING TO CHALLENGE NRC GRANTED LICENSE FOR INTERIM STORAGE OF SNF

The Supreme Court ruled today that entities who were not parties to a Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s (NRC) licensing proceeding are not entitled to obtain judicial review of the NRC’s licensing decision under the Hobbs Act.  Texas has no standing to challenge the NRC decision on the NRC licensing for a spent nuclear fuel (SNF) facility issued to Interim Storage Partners (ISP).  The Court did not rule on whether the NRC has the authority to grant a license for a SNF facility. 

The full ruling can be found at  https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24pdf/23-1300_b97c.pdf

KAVANAUGH, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which ROBERTS, C. J., and SOTOMAYOR, KAGAN, BARRETT, and JACKSON, JJ., joined. 

GORSUCH, J., filed a dissenting opinion, in which THOMAS and ALITO, JJ., joined.

Summary

The Atomic Energy Act of 1954 generally prohibits the private possession of nuclear materials, including spent nuclear fuel, without a license. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) may license the possession of nuclear materials, subject to statutory and procedural requirements. 42 U. S. C. §§2073(a), 2092–2093(a), 2111(a), 2231, 2239. Here, Interim Storage Partners (ISP) applied for a license to build a facility in West Texas to store spent nuclear fuel. During ISP’s licensing proceeding, a Texas government agency submitted comments, including comments on a draft environmental impact statement (EIS) prepared by the Commission for the proposed facility. Fasken Land and Minerals, a private West Texas business, similarly submitted comments, and it also sought to intervene in the licensing proceeding. The Commission denied Fasken’s petition to intervene. Fasken then unsuccessfully challenged that denial of intervention before the full Commission and the D. C. Circuit. In September 2021, the Commission granted ISP a license to build and operate its proposed storage facility. Texas and Fasken sought review of the Commission’s licensing decision in the Fifth Circuit. The Fifth Circuit vacated ISP’s license. 

Held: Because Texas and Fasken were not parties to the Commission’s licensing proceeding, they are not entitled to obtain judicial review of the Commission’s licensing decision. 

Because Texas and Fasken have no right to judicial review of the licensing proceeding, the Court did not not decide whether the NRC possessed statutory authority to issue a license to ISP.