Hearing shows opposition to nuclear waste storage plan

Speakers concerned about harm to agriculture, oil and gas production

A plan to temporarily store tons of spent fuel from U.S. commercial nuclear reactors in New Mexico is drawing fire from critics who say the federal government needs to consider more alternatives.

Dozens of people packed a meeting Monday in Roswell as regulators took comments on the proposal by Holtec International to build a space below ground to store about 100,000 metric tons of used fuel.

Ranchers and dairy operators suggested the plan could affect agriculture and oil and gas production — stalwarts of the southeastern New Mexico economy.

Supporters say the project could provide another economic boost to the region, which is already home to the federal government’s only underground repository for Cold War-era waste generated by decades of bomb-making and nuclear research.

The meeting came just days after a congressional subcommittee reviewed a proposed budget for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission that addressed the decadeslong stalemate over what to do with the nation’s nuclear waste.

Holtec is seeking an initial 40-year license, but critics, including members of New Mexico’s congressional delegation, have concerns that the federal government has no plans for permanent disposal and the waste could end up marooned in the state indefinitely.

Don Hancock with the Southwest Research and Information Center, an Albuquerque-based watchdog group, said federal regulators need to consider improving storage capabilities where the fuel is already being kept. Hancock and others have raised questions about transporting the waste across the country.

At Monday’s public meeting, which was the first of three planned this week in New Mexico, dairy owner Al Squire said any contamination of the air or drinking water could disrupt marketing his products.

“An entire industry could be destroyed in the midst of widespread consumer panic that would most certainly follow such an accident,” Squire said in a statement.

Holtec officials have argued that the project would be safe and would address growing demand.

The facility would be located in a remote area on 1,000 acres between the cities of Carlsbad and Hobbs.

The latest budget request by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission includes more than $47 million for a long-stalled nuclear waste repository at Nevada’s Yucca Mountain, 100 miles from Las Vegas. That state’s Republican governor and lawmakers from both parties oppose the plan.

U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander, a Tennessee Republican who chairs a subcommittee on energy and water development, said at a hearing last week that Yucca Mountain should be part of the solution and that the nuclear commission’s scientists have said waste can be safely stored there.

The quickest and likely least expensive way to meet government obligations is to contract with a private storage facility, Alexander said.

New Mexico’s Democratic senators — Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich — have asked for more public meetings on the Holtec proposal. They say residents outside southeastern New Mexico should have a say.

The commission is accepting online comments through May 29.

Republican Gov. Susana Martinez and cities and counties in the region support the proposal.