Spent nuclear fuel gets storage

Regulators license multibillion-dollar New Mexico complex

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — U.S. nuclear regulators licensed a multibillion-dollar complex to temporarily store tons of spent nuclear fuel in New Mexico from commercial power plants around the nation, a decision likely to be challenged in court.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission issued its decision Tuesday, saying it will allow the energy company Holtec International to build and operate the facility in southeastern New Mexico. New Jersey-based Holtec may still need to acquire permits from the state, and top New Mexico officials have vowed to fight the project.

Hot and highly radioactive, spent fuel consists of uranium pellets inside metal rods. It can only be handled by machines and people have to be physically shielded from it, usually by steel or concrete.

The New Mexico project would have capacity to temporarily store up to 8,680 metric tons of used uranium fuel. Future expansion could make room for as many as 10,000 canisters over six decades. The material would be transported to New Mexico via rail.

Critics say most would be brought from East Coast sites, prompting concern after recent railway accidents involving other chemicals and cargo.

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and the state’s congressional delegation say they fear New Mexico will become the nation’s dumping ground for spent nuclear fuel because the federal government has no permanent solution for the waste piling up at commercial reactors around the country.

New Mexico approved legislation in March aimed at stopping the project.

“Today’s actions by the NRC illustrate the importance of New Mexico’s new prohibition on the storage and disposal of high-level nuclear waste. It’s time that our voice be heard and honored, and that this project be shut down,” said state

Sen. Jeff Steinborn, a Democrat who sponsored the measure.

Holtec has argued that the New Mexico measure is pre-empted by federal law and that a court fight would only delay the economic boon that would come from building the complex. The company has spent an estimated $80 million pursuing the 40-year license to build and operate the facility.

Company officials and some elected leaders from southeastern New Mexico have been pushing hard to offer what they call a temporary solution to the nation’s problem of spent nuclear fuel.