Virginia Uranium, Inc. v. Warren

Summary

Virginia Uranium, Inc., wants to mine raw uranium ore from a site near Coles Hill, Virginia, but Virginia law flatly prohibits uranium mining in the Commonwealth. See Va. Code Ann. Sections 45.1-161.292:30, 45.1-283. The company filed suit, alleging that, under the Constitution's Supremacy Clause, the Atomic Energy Act (AEA) preempts state uranium mining laws like Virginia's and ensconces the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) as the lone regulator in the field. And because the NRC's regulations say nothing about uranium mining, the company continued, it remains free to mine as it will in Virginia or elsewhere. Both the District Court and the Fourth Circuit rejected the company's argument, finding that while the AEA affords the NRC considerable authority over the nuclear fuel life cycle, it offers no hint that Congress sought to strip States of their traditional power to regulate mining on private lands within their borders.

Affirmed. For purposes of preemption under the Supremacy Clause, a litigant must point specifically to "a constitutional text or a federal statute" that displaces state law. Puerto Rico Dept. of Consumer Affairs v. ISLA Petroleum Corp. Here, the AEA contains no provision preempting state law. Even more pointedly, the statute grants the NRC extensive and sometimes exclusive authority to regulate nearly every aspect of the nuclear fuel life cycle except mining. But when it comes to mining, the statute speaks very differently, expressly stating that the NRC's regulatory powers arise only "after [uranium's] removal from its place of deposit in nature." 42 U.S.C. Section 2092. After announcing a general rule that mining regulation lies outside the NRC's jurisdiction, the AEA carves out a notably narrow exception. On federal lands, the statute says, the NRC may regulate uranium mining. Section 2097. And if the federal government wants to control mining of uranium on private land, it may purchase or seize the land by eminent domain and make it federal land. Section 2096. Congress thus has spoken directly to the question of uranium mining on private land, and every bit of what it's said indicates that state authority remains untouched.

— Silva Demirjian