Texas tells Supreme Court it shouldn't be 'left holding the bag' for US nuclear waste
March 5, 2025
WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court on Wednesday debated how to dispose of the nation’s nuclear waste as Texas tried to convince the justices to block a storage site near the state’s border with New Mexico.
Texas and a Texas-based oil and gas extraction organization argued the Nuclear Regulatory Commission lacked the authority to approve a site to store up to 5,000 metric tons of spent nuclear fuel for 40 years.
“If anyone thinks this is temporary, I have a bridge to sell you,” said Texas Solicitor General Aaron Nielson, referencing the old yarn about the Brooklyn Bridge. “What the commission has just done is put a permanent terrorist’s bullseye on the most productive oil field in the country.”
The federal government says the Texas plaintiffs are misreading the law in a way that would disrupt the nuclear power industry, which supplies about one-fifth of the nation’s electricity. Since 1980, the NRC has allowed on-site and off-site storage, said Malcolm Stewart, the Justice Department’s deputy solicitor general.
“That system allows a substantial role for private market responses to the country’s nuclear waste storage issues,” while ensuring the storage is safe, Stewart said.
