The nuclear watchdog organization Beyond Nuclear filed an appeal this week with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory commission to try to overturn an earlier ruling that rejected petitions for an evidentiary hearing to contest Holtec International’s license application for a spent nuclear fuel storage facility in southeastern New Mexico.
Beyond Nuclear filed its appeal Monday. The issue could escalate to federal court if the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) commissioners backup a lower NRC panel’s ruling..
On May 7, the three-member Atomic Safety and Licensing Board ruled that ruled that none of the technical contentions filed by six entities, including Beyond Nuclear, met the criteria to hold an evidentiary hearing.
Holtec is seeking a 2020 decision from the NRC’s Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards on its March 2017 application for a 40-year license to store 8,680 metric tons of used fuel underground in Lea County, N.M.
With regulatory approval and license extensions, the Lea County facility ultimately could hold up to 173,000 metric tons of used fuel for as long as 120 years. Holtec hopes to begin operations by 2022.
Meanwhile a joint venture by Orano and Waste Control Specialists team, called Interim Storage Partners (ISP), hopes to obtain a 40-year NRC license in 2021 or 2022 for its site in West Texas, just across the border from the planned Holtec facility. The ISP facility would begin with 5,000 metric tons of capacity, working up to a total of 40,000 metric tons. The ISP facility is not covered by the appeal Beyond Nuclear filed this week.
The groups that challenged Holtec’s license applications on legal, environmental, and safety grounds were: the Sierra Club; Beyond Nuclear; a coalition of environmental organizations led by Don’t Waste Michigan; the Alliance for Environmental Strategies; local oil and gas interests Fasken Land and Minerals and Permian Basin Land and Royalty Owners; and used fuel storage company NAC International, which is supporting ISP’s storage facility.
In its Monday filing, Beyond Nuclear requested that the NRC deny Holtec’s license application due to alleged violations of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 and the Administrative Procedure Act.
“Holtec is attempting an end-run around the carefully crafted and well balanced Nuclear Waste Policy Act, the public’s several-decade old, best protection against an interim storage facility becoming de facto permanent, at the surface, in this case two and a half times bigger than the national dump-site targeted at Western Shoshone Indian land at Yucca Mountain, Nevada,” said Kevin Kamps, radioactive waste specialist at Beyond Nuclear, in a press release.
