(VOR News) – On Friday, the Supreme Court decided to step in and settle a disagreement over the planned storage of radioactive waste in rural Texas and New Mexico.

The 5th United States Circuit Supreme Court of Appeals found that the Radioactive Regulatory Commission had overreached its authority under federal law when it authorized a private company to store spent radioactive material for forty years at a West Texas dump.

The justices have stated that they will examine this ruling in greater detail. The plans for a facility that resembles the one in New Mexico will change depending on how the lawsuit turns out.

Both states’ political elites are against the facilities.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott, a Republican, said that his state “will not serve as a repository for nuclear waste in the Supreme Court United States.”

Up until now, the country’s efforts to establish a long-term underground storage facility have failed. The political environment surrounding this search is complicated, and one aspect of it is the ongoing push for venues for temporary storage.

At the locations of existing and previous nuclear power reactors across the nation, about 100,000 tons (90,000 metric tons) of spent fuel are accumulating; some of it dates back to the 1980s. This amount is building up at a rate of more than two thousand tons annually. Before being buried at a suitable depth, the waste was supposed to be temporarily kept.

The idea of building a national storage facility on Yucca Mountain, northwest of Las Vegas, has been met with strong opposition from most Nevadans, including government officials. With this in mind, the initiative has been completely shelved.

The ongoing disagreement over nuclear waste storage is one of thirteen issues that the justices have scheduled for their upcoming term, which begins on Monday.

Other notable cases include an appeal by a Texas death row inmate whose execution was last-minutely delayed by the supreme court in July, and a move by gun makers to end a legal dispute in which Mexico is attempting to hold them accountable for gun violence south of the border. These two examples are remarkable.

At the start of next year, the justices in the NRC lawsuit will hear arguments on two questions.

The National Research Council (NRC) asserts that because states have chosen not to engage in the commission’s proceedings, they have relinquished their ability to challenge licensing decisions.

The Federal Appeals and Supreme Courts in Denver and Washington also ruled in its favor.

All of the cases were allowed to continue by the Fifth Circuit. The second question concerns the commission’s jurisdiction to grant permits for facilities that provide temporary storage in compliance with federal law.

Unlikely partners, environmental groups and the state of Texas depended on a 2022 Supreme Court decision holding that Congress must proceed cautiously when granting an agency the power to regulate a matter of significant national interest.

In its decision for Texas, the Fifth Circuit Supreme Court of Appeals found that the issue of how to dispose of the country’s nuclear waste is a “major question” that needs immediate action from Congress.

As a result of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, the commission has long-standing jurisdiction to address nuclear waste, which the Vice President Joe Biden administration has informed the Supreme Court about.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has authorized Interim Storage Partners LLC to run a facility in the state of Texas. This facility can hold up to 5,000 metric tons of spent nuclear fuel rods from power plants in addition to 231 million tons of other radioactive waste.

The facility would be built in close proximity to an existing Andrews County disposal site for the purpose of getting rid of low-level trash, which includes radioactively exposed things like protective gear. The area in Andrews County is about 350 miles (563.27 kilometers) west of Dallas, close to the Texas–New Mexico state line.

The commission authorized Holtec International to run a temporary storage facility in Lea County, California, which is near Carlsbad in the state’s southeast. The license is opposed by other New Mexico officials and Democratic Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham. Moreover, that license has been revoked by the Fifth Circuit.

By the middle of the following year, we hope to have a decision.

SOURCE: AP

SEE ALSO:

Analyzing the US Election: Kamala Harris Versus Donald Trump

The Biden Administration can go Ahead With Student Loan Forgiveness, Says a Federal Judge.

Chief Operating Officer Of Truth Social’s Parent Company Resigns

LONDON — Meta in hot water once again. The European Union’s top court ruled on Friday that social networking company Meta cannot utilize public information on a user’s sexual orientation collected outside of its platforms for targeted advertising under the bloc’s tough data privacy regulations.

The ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Union in Luxembourg is a triumph for Austrian privacy campaigner Max Schrems, who has been a thorn in the side of Big Tech corporations over their compliance with the 27-nation bloc’s data protection regulations.

Austrian Activist Schrems Wins Privacy Case Against Meta Over Personal Data On Sexual Orientation

The EU court released its decision after Austria’s Supreme Court requested assistance in Schrems’ case on how to apply privacy standards known as the General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR.

Schrems had protested that Facebook had used personal information, including his sexual orientation, to target him with online advertising despite the fact that he had never acknowledged his homosexuality on his account. He had only publicly acknowledged this fact once, during a panel discussion.

“An online social network such as Facebook cannot use all of the personal data obtained for the purposes of targeted advertising, without restriction as to time and without distinction as to type of data,” the court stated in a press release summarizing its ruling.

Even though Schrems disclosed his homosexuality during the debate, the agreement “does not authorise the operator of an online social network platform to process other data relating to his sexual orientation, obtained, as the case may be, outside that platform, with a view to aggregating and analysing those data, in order to offer him personalised advertising.”

Austrian Activist Schrems Wins Privacy Case Against Meta Over Personal Data On Sexual Orientation

Meta stated that it was awaiting publication of the court’s entire decision and that it “takes privacy very seriously.”

“Everyone using Facebook has access to a wide range of settings and tools that allow people to manage how we use their information,” according to a statement from the business.

Katharina Raabe-Stuppnig, Schrems’ lawyer, applauded the court’s decision.

“Meta has been accumulating a massive user data pool over the past 20 years, and it is growing by the day. However, EU law mandates ‘data minimisation’,” she stated in a statement. “Following this ruling only a small part of Meta’s data pool will be allowed to be used for advertising — even when users consent to ads.”

SOURCE | AP

(VOR News) – Uber has not yet completed its aim to acquire relationships with automotive companies that produce autonomous vehicles.

The huge ride-hailing and delivery company made an announcement on Thursday regarding a multi-year arrangement with Avride, which is a spinoff of Yandex.

Both Uber Eats and Uber will be able to participate in the introduction of the company’s autonomous vehicles and sidewalk delivery robots as a result of this partnership.

With this relationship, Uber is making an effort to position itself as the ideal partner for autonomous vehicle (AV) enterprises that are looking to sell their goods.

This partnership is the most recent in a series of arrangements that the company has signed over the course of the past two months.

Yandex NV, a corporation based in the Netherlands that sold off its Russian business earlier this year following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, is now known as Nebius Group. Nebius Group is the parent company of four projects, one of which is Avride.

Nebius Group created Uber Avride.

Within the next few weeks, customers of Uber Eats who are located in the central business district of Austin will have the choice to have their food delivered by a robot that is owned and operated by Avride. In the latter part of 2024, the service will also be made available in the cities of Dallas and Jersey City.

By the end of the following year, the two companies had communicated their ambition to include Avride’s autonomous vehicles on the Uber platform in the city of Dallas.

Avride’s headquarters are located in Austin, and the company is already offering commercial delivery services to local eateries in Mueller, which is a planned development that encompasses 700 acres. Some of the restaurants that are receiving these services include Rebel Cheese, Colleen’s Kitchen, and Xian Sushi & Noodles as well as others.

The corporation claims that its fleet of “dozens” of bots is operational every day from eight in the morning until ten at night. This is the time period that the bots are in operation. Additionally, Avride is utilizing its bots in order to carry out commercial deliveries in the South Korean market.

The development of autonomous vehicles by Avride is running a little bit behind schedule than it was originally planned.

The firm claims that it is now conducting tests on public roads in Austin and Seoul with a safety driver seated in the front seat of a fleet of autonomous Hyundai Ioniq 5 vehicles. Austin and Seoul are both located in South Korea.

In recent weeks, Uber has formed partnerships with WeRide.

A Chinese startup company engaged in the development of autonomous vehicles, including their robot axis in the Uber app in Abu Dhabi. Wayve, a firm established in the United Kingdom, and Cruise, a company owned by General Motors, have both reached partnerships with Uber.

Additionally, Uber has reached deals with Wayve. In addition, the company has increased its ongoing cooperation with Waymo, which will make it possible for the robots that belong to the company that is owned by Alphabet to be displayed on the Uber app in Austin and Atlanta beginning in the early year 2025.

Dara Khosrowshahi, the Chief Executive Officer of Uber, indicated that the firm possesses the proper usage, consumer experience, and go-to-market skills to produce the most value for autonomous vehicle (AV) partners during the earnings call that Uber held in August for the second quarter.

This comment was made by Khosrowshahi, and it was followed by the formation of these recent agreements, which are in addition to the previous partnerships with autonomous delivery businesses like Serve Robotics, Cartken, and Nuro, among others.

SOURCE: TC

SEE ALSO:

A Hospital Fire in Taiwan Killed At Least 9 People as a Storm Swept the Island’s South.