NRC v. Texas
Headline: Ruling prevents Texas and a West Texas landowner from challenging the NRC’s license because they were not formal parties, blocking their court challenge and leaving the federal license intact for now.
Holding:
- Blocks Texas and the landowner from challenging the NRC license in the Fifth Circuit.
- Leaves ISP’s 40-year interim storage license intact while procedural review limits remain.
- Limits court access unless outside parties obtain or win intervention in agency hearings.
Summary
Background
The dispute involves the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (a federal agency), Interim Storage Partners (a private company that applied for a license), the State of Texas, and Fasken Land and Minerals (a nearby West Texas business). ISP sought a 40-year renewable license to store spent nuclear fuel at an off-site facility in Andrews County, Texas. The NRC prepared a draft and final environmental impact statement (EIS). A Texas government agency and Fasken submitted comments on the EIS. Fasken also tried to intervene in the NRC licensing hearing but the Commission denied that request, and the D.C. Circuit later upheld that denial. The NRC issued the license in September 2021; Texas and Fasken sued in the Fifth Circuit, which vacated the license.
Reasoning
The Supreme Court’s central question was whether Texas and Fasken could obtain judicial review of the NRC’s licensing order. The Court held they could not because the Hobbs Act allows only an aggrieved “party” to seek review. Under the Atomic Energy Act the Court read, a person becomes a party in a licensing proceeding only by being the license applicant or by successfully intervening and being admitted by the Commission. Filing comments on the EIS did not make Texas or Fasken parties. The Court also rejected efforts to relitigate the prior D.C. Circuit ruling denying Fasken intervention and declined to allow a broad extra-statutory challenge labeled “ultra vires.”
Real world impact
Because Texas and Fasken were not parties, the Court reversed the Fifth Circuit and ordered denial or dismissal of their petitions for review. The Court expressly did not decide whether the NRC actually had statutory authority to license private off-site storage, so the underlying legal dispute remains unresolved and could be raised in proper forums.
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