In August of 2023, the federal Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the NRC did not have authority under the federal Atomic Energy Act to issue the license and that the issuance of the license violated the federal Nuclear Waste Policy Act. The Court held that although the Atomic Energy Act grants authority to the NRC to issue licenses for “utilization or production facilities for industrial or commercial purposes,” nothing in the Atomic Energy Act authorizes the NRC to issue licenses for storage or disposal of nuclear material. The Court also held that the Nuclear Waste Policy Act provides that until there is a permanent repository for spent nuclear fuel (which Yucca Mountain was supposed to be), spent nuclear fuel is to be stored onsite at the reactor or in a federal facility.
