Feds to review proposed N.M. waste site for nuke rods
The federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission will begin a lengthy review of an East Coast company’s proposal to store up to 100,000 metric tons of spent nuclear fuel rods in underground casks on a nearly 1,000-acre parcel in southeastern New Mexico’s Lea County.
Florida- and New Jersey-based Holtec Inc. submitted an application about a year ago for what was described as interim storage of the highly radioactive rods, now mainly kept on-site at nuclear power plants because no permanent storage facility exists. The plan had strong support from the Eddy-Lea Energy Alliance — a consortium that includes the two adjacent counties, as well as the cities of Hobbs and Carlsbad, home of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant where transuranic waste from nuclear weapons development is stored in underground salt caverns.
The Holtec project calls for carbon steel vessels full of the rods to be buried in a waste field on desert land that lies between the two cities.
“The NRC has determined the application is sufficiently complete for the staff to begin its detailed safety, security and environmental reviews,” the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said in a news release issued Thursday, adding that the decision to move forward with the review “does not indicate approval of the application.”
Still, news that the federal agency would begin the yearslong review of Holtec’s application brought concerns from environmental groups, including the Sierra Club’s Rio Grande Chapter in Albuquerque.
“In part, it seems the agency is driving the process,” said chapter spokesman John Buchser. “The risk is huge.”
He said the Nuclear Regulatory Commission should be determining whether the company has completed the application but instead is going further, giving Holtec “many opportunities to fix things.”
A commission spokesman denied that Holtec is getting special treatment. “When we do any sort of licensing … we would ask an applicant for additional information,” said David McIntyre. “If we see something missing, we ask for it.”
Holtec is seeking a 40-year license for temporary storage of spent fuel rods from about 90 commercial nuclear reactors around the country — some currently operating and others that are retired or in the process of being decommissioned. According to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s news release, the initial request is for storage of up to 8,680 metric tons of waste.
But McIntyre said the “ultimate target” is for up to 100,000 metric tons of spent rods. If the company’s application were approved, he said, the high-level nuclear waste would be stored at the interim facility “until a permanent storage option is available.”
Public meetings will be held around New Mexico to gather public comment, he said.
The two-part review of the proposal includes a technical safety analysis and an environmental assessment, followed a year later by a draft environmental impact statement and more public comment, McIntyre said. No dates or locations for such meetings have been set.
Among the Sierra Club’s concerns about the project are a possible terrorist attack on the storage facility, storage canister leaks of radiation and risks of hydraulic fracturing-related earthquakes in oil-rich Southern New Mexico.
If there were “a 9/11-type attack,” Buchser said, “it would spread radioactive waste all over southeast New Mexico.”
In a January newsletter, the Sierra Club also said that “12,000 train loads of casks holding irradiated fuel rods, at government’s own estimates, [could] bring ten major accidents over 20 years.”
Buchser said the club believes the nation should “maintain waste at the site of production until permanent solutions are attained.”
A project to create a long-term storage facility for high-level nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain in Nevada was launched in 2002 but faced fierce opposition and stalled under the Obama administration.
The Holtec project in New Mexico has drawn a mix of reactions.
While environmental groups oppose it, the proposal has drawn wide support from state lawmakers and state and local officials, including Gov. Susana Martinez, in addition to the coalition of cities and counties that have lobbied for it.
Holtec has said the waste facility would create 350 short-term construction jobs and several hundred permanent jobs. In a statement in March 2017, Holtec said state government and local communities “have provided unwavering support for the program.”