diff --git a/Dockerfile b/Dockerfile
index 619c3d1f..37bcb35d 100644
--- a/Dockerfile
+++ b/Dockerfile
@@ -29,7 +29,8 @@ LABEL "nemo.library"=${IMAGE_LABEL}
 WORKDIR /opt
 
 # Install the minimal libcu* libraries needed by NeMo Curator
-RUN conda create -y --name curator -c nvidia/label/cuda-${CUDA_VER} -c conda-forge \
+ENV _CUDA_VER=${CUDA_VER}
+RUN conda create -y --name curator -c nvidia/label/cuda-${_CUDA_VER} -c conda-forge \
   python=3.10 \
   cuda-cudart \
   libcufft \