A U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit decision siding with Texas in its challenge to a nuclear waste storage license is based on decades-old dicta and deepens an existing circuit split on a jurisdiction issue, judges dissenting to a denial of an en banc rehearing stated Thursday.
The full Fifth Circuit declined to reconsider a panel’s August decision that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission lacked authority under the Atomic Energy Act to license a private company, Interim Storage Partners, to store nuclear waste in Andrews County, Texas.
