Court Removes Hurdle for Nuclear Waste Disposal
June 19, 2025
The US Supreme Court has removed a major legal roadblock to plans to build several facilities for temporarily storing nuclear wastes produced by power plants, even as plans for permanent storage remain stalled. In the Issues Forum, several experts view advancing temporary storage as a missed opportunity. “Interim storage was to be the bridge to somewhere,” Mary Wooleen notes, “but the bridge is now looking like the destination.” And Rodney C. Ewing adds, “Any decision to go forward with interim storage needs to be part of a broader series of decisions that will guarantee the final disposal of spent fuel in a geologic repository.”