Of Cracked Canisters and Split Decisions.
The Crackpot Perils of Schizophrenic Radwaste Containment Policy
Nuclear Situational Awareness
By James Heddle, By Mary Beth Brangan - EON
The split U.S. Supreme Court ruling has a fissure as deep as the potential catastrophic stress corrosion cracking from a deep gouge in a Holtec spent fuel canister. Gouges were caused by improper lowering into Southern California Edison’s Surfside Stainless Steel Silo at the shuttered San Onofre nuclear generating station. (SONGS)
On June 19, 2025, CBS reported –
“CBS-Washington — The Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected a challenge brought by Texas and a group of landowners to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's approval of a private company's plan to temporarily store thousands of metric tons of nuclear waste at a facility in the state.
Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote in a decision for a 6-3 court in the case of NRC v. Texas that neither Texas nor a land developer were parties to the commission's licensing proceeding, and therefore are not entitled to obtain judicial review. Justices Neil Gorsuch, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito dissented.”
Citing the Hobbs Act and other rulings, the Court had ruled that Fasken Land and Minerals Corp. and the state of Texas were not "aggrieved parties" to the agreement and therefore could not seek judicial remedy.
Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito joined in the dissent.
According to Newsweek,
“Gorsuch claimed that the NRC's licensing decision was "unlawful." He added that both the state and the landowners are "aggrieved" by the NRC's decision, because "radioactive waste poses risks to the State, its citizens, its lands, air, and waters, and it poses dangers as well to a neighbor and its employees."
He continued, "Both Texas and Fasken participated actively in other aspects of the NRC's licensing proceeding. No more is required for them to qualify as 'parties aggrieved' by the NRC's licensing decision. Both are entitled to their day in court—and both are entitled to prevail."
The Texas Tribune adds:
“But a spokesperson for Abbott on Wednesday night told the Odessa American (https://www.oaoa.com/local-news/abbott-says-no-to-high-level-andrews-county-nuke-dump/) that building the West Texas waste site would go against state law.
"Gov. Abbott will not allow illegal dumping of ultra-hazardous spent nuclear fuel near the world’s largest producing oilfield," spokesman Andrew Mahaleris told the newspaper.
Reed Clay, president of the Texas Nuclear Alliance, which advocates for building out nuclear technology in the state, said in a statement that the Supreme Court's decision "likely doesn't change much of anything" because of the state's existing policy for storing high-level nuclear waste.”
Unfortunately, however, it does remove one roadblock from initiating “consolidated interim radioactive waste dumps.” And most troubling, may establish a legal precedent that would allow the NRC to decide who could challenge its rulings and therefore remove the right of citizens and even states to challenge them.
From the Gorsuch dissent:
“[B]y accepting the NRC’s strained view that §2239 represents the only way for someone to become a party to its licensing proceedings, we effectively allow the agency to keep even a neighboring landowner and the very State in which massive amounts of spent nuclear fuel will be stored from being heard in court. Fox meet henhouse.” (p 23)
Justice Gorsuch argued the NRC violated the law, and the courts should hear the challenge. He concluded the opinion, writing, "Because nothing in the law requires us to indulge any of those fantasies, I respectfully dissent."
Those ‘fantasies’ ignore some very inconvenient truths.
The NEI lists a total of 94 nuclear reactors at 53 nuclear plants in 28 states where 90,000 tons are now storage. With a new generation of reactors being proposed together with restarting shuttered old reactors, many additional tons of radioactive waste will be produced for which there is no current responsible management plan.
1 min. video report on the SCOTUS ruling in Instagram and TikTok style by EON’s Morgan Peterson
What we call responsible: We advocate for thick-walled casks that don’t crack, with their many safety features, maintained over time by skilled workers in onsite storage (or as close to the site of generation as safely possible to eliminate transport risks) in reinforced buildings where the radioactive waste can be monitored, maintained, and containers upgraded as needed. We can’t move forward with more nuclear power and radioactive waste generation until there’s a real plan for managing the 90,000 metric tons already created.
Donna Gilmore of SanOnofreSafety.org deserves credit for uncovering the research on stress corrossion cracking and making it available on her excellent website.
At all the reactor sites across the country, those toxic tons that can spread lethal radioactive destruction to anything they touch - will remain highly radioactive for longer than human civilization has yet existed - and are now being stored in thin-walled, stainless steel containers scheduled to last only 20- 40 years.
They are all subject to an ongoing degradation process termed ‘stress-corrosion cracking,’ that is induced by the waterside environments in which they all exist for vital cooling purposes.
Gary Headrick of SanOnofreGreen.org has reported in his latest News Letter that So. Cal. Edison has been refusing to allow the public to see a suspicious canister’s visual inspection evidence on its condition.
Headrick reports,
Therein lies the dilemma we face. Edison selected a different kind of container than the rest of the world uses, because it was only intended for temporary storage. When it was determined that Yucca Mountain was not a suitable site for storing nuclear waste, for political and geological reasons, it became a serious race against time.
Currently, the industry is being handsomely rewarded for overseeing this stranded nuclear waste to the tune of two million dollars a day. The name of their game is to deny any concerns that there is a problem with the thin walled canisters until the Department of Energy takes over liability. The DOE won't accept liability if the canisters are not suitable for transportation. If problems are discovered before that time, it will be up to the industry to resolve this very costly effort. Every canister would need to be repackaged into the thick walled casks, before they can be transported by rail, barge or truck. If this is not done in time, over 70 locations with stranded nuclear waste will eventually and almost simultaneously fail to contain nuclear waste.
Please watch our award-winning documentary for the full story, SOS, The San Onofre Syndrome: Nuclear Power’s Legacy. It’s available on Amazon Prime TV, YouTube and many other platforms here
Information is power. Let’s not let our future go to waste.
For information, please visit the SOS website.
Mary Beth Brangan and James Heddle co-direct EON, the Ecological Options Network. EON helps build accurate, full-spectrum public situational awareness with evidence-based information.
The multi-award winning EON feature documentary SOS – The San Onofre Syndrome: Nuclear Power’s Legacy, was chosen as the opening film in the 13th annual Global Nonviolent Film Festival, where it also received the Organizers’ Award for ‘BEST ACTUALITY SUBJECT – Feature Documentary’.
SOS has won awards in several other international festivals, and is available for viewing worldwide. The film was produced by Mary Beth Brangan and directed by Brangan, Heddle, and Morgan Peterson, who also served as editor. SOS is a trans-generational family co-creation of two senior filmmakers and a millennial mom with two young daughters. For information, please visit the SOS website.