Jeremy L. Dillon
RW Monitor
5/1/2015
While the Eddy Lea Energy Alliance announced this week its intent to move forward with Holtec International to construct a spent nuclear fuel interim storage facility, backed by local and state officials in southeastern New Mexico, the state’s Senate delegation’s opposition to the project emerged as a remaining major obstacle. The ELEA announced this week that the group of local communities had entered into a Memorandum of Agreement with Holtec to construct an interim storage facility. Under the terms of the agreement, the ELEA will provide the land and local logistics support including existing environmental characterization data while Holtec will design the facility, perform all necessary safety evaluations, secure Nuclear Regulatory Commission approvals, and build and operate the facility.
According to Holtec President and CEO Kris Singh, the company plans on submitting the necessary paperwork to the NRC for review within a year, although details like the business plan between the two groups and DOE’s involvement with the facility are still to be determined. ELEA Chairman John Heaton said that the group had not yet determined whether it would approach the site as a commercial operation or as a DOE-owned/operated pilot facility. The proposal also still needs clarification on how DOE can use Nuclear Waste Fund money to ship material to site and whether DOE would take title of the waste. Those conversations with DOE still need to take place. ELEA has reached out, but DOE has not replied yet, Heaton said. The NRC review would take a minimum of three years and “many millions” to complete, but if everything goes smoothly, the site could be operational by the end of 2019, Heaton predicted.
According to Heaton, Holtec’s underground system and flexible design made the partnership attractive. The design would place the canisters underground and top them with a closure lid made of a massive steel weldment filled with concrete. While Holtec’s design will center on canisters produced by the company, it can also fit casks from other companies as well. “One of the interesting things about the Holtec system is that they can take canisters from any system,” Heaton told RW Monitor this week. “They’re not just limited to Holtec canisters. The cells they produce in the ground are very flexible, so they are able to take canisters from other waste that is in a multi-purpose unit that gets shipped in a cask already. I’m sure that capability will be considered as well.”
Proposal Draws New Mexico Political Divide
Both New Mexico Senators, though, voiced their opposition to the plan. Sens. Tom Udall (D-N.M.) and Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) said they could not support the plan unless the federal government establishes a permanent disposal pathway for spent fuel. Both Senators also indicated that DOE’s and New Mexico’s focus should be on reopening the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant following the radiological release that occurred there last year. “I don’t think we should be talking about this at all while the state and the Department of Energy are still addressing the serious accident and radiation release at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant,” Udall said in a statement. “I have helped secure hundreds of millions in vital funding for WIPP for many years, and my focus now is ensuring WIPP can reopen safely and the workers are protected. Several aspects of this proposal concern me. No matter where it’s built, I will not support an interim disposal site without a plan for permanent disposal — whether the site is in southeastern New Mexico or anywhere else in the country –because that nuclear waste could be orphaned there indefinitely.”
Heinrich echoed those sentiments: “Southeastern New Mexico should be commended for its leadership in the nuclear industry, including being home to WIPP, which is the nation’s only deep geologic repository for transuranic nuclear weapons waste and an integral part of the environmental clean-up of Cold War programs at Department of Energy defense sites,” Heinrich said in a statement. “But we can’t put the cart before the horse. I cannot support establishing an interim storage facility until we are sure there will be a path forward to permanent disposal. There must be an open and transparent process that allows for input on what’s best for our entire state.”
Governor Martinez, Rep. Pearce Back Project
The group, though, does have the consent of key government officials within both the surrounding community and the state government. U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce (R-N.M.), whose district includes Eddy and Lea Counties, expressed his interest in the project. “From oil and natural gas production to nuclear waste disposal, Lea and Eddy Counties have become a hub for energy development and advancement,” Pearce said in a statement. “As this tremendous opportunity continues to develop, the key, as with all development in the region, will be community support and trust. The great successes of Lea and Eddy Counties are wholly attributed to the commitment, dedication and work ethic of the community.”
New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez (R) has also backed the ELEA’s proposal in a letter she sent to Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz in April. She said “the dry remote region is well-suited for an interim storage site,” while the experienced nuclear force in the region is well-suited to the work. Carlsbad, Hobbs, Lea County, and Eddie County have all passed resolutions in favor of interim storage. “We don’t enter into this lightly,” Hobbs Mayor Sam Cobb said. “We have a very educated citizenry. Our public officials are well-educated as it relates to the nuclear fuel cycle. We know that our site that we have characterized half-way between Hobbs and Carlsbad is the best site in this country. It has the right geography and it has the right geology to implement the system Holtec is designing.”
According to Heaton, the group will continue to push for more consensus within the state. “This is just the beginning of this project,” Heaton said. He added, “We will be spending a considerable amount of time as the Eddy Lea Alliance in partnership with Holtec in terms of educating the population of New Mexico in as many ways as we can and know how to. We feel that is a strong obligation of us—that the folks in New Mexico know exactly what we are doing and how we are doing it. So, we will be out on the road going town to town and working with the governor and the legislature and others that want to be heard on this project.”
Interim Storage Sites Emerging
New Mexico joins Texas as one of the state governments willing to look at potentially hosting an interim storage facility. Last Year, former Gov. Rick Perry (R) and Texas Speaker of the House Joe Straus (R) both voiced their support for looking at the potential of hosting an interim storage facility. Straus has asked state lawmakers to begin considering the logistics and economic impact of potentially hosting a high-level radioactive waste disposal site or interim storage facility, and Perry charged the Texas Commission of Environmental Quality to prepare a report looking at the history of spent fuel disposal and lessons-learned from previous attempts. Citing this state level support, Waste Control Specialists announced earlier this year its intention to construct a commercial interim storage facility by 2020.
A consent-based pilot consolidated storage facility is the preferred strategy of the Department of Energy to satisfy the nation’s spent fuel disposal needs, but due to language in the Nuclear Waste Policy Act the Department cannot consider other sites beyond Yucca Mountain in Nevada without Congressional approval. Moniz, however, in an announcement in March, said that the Department would begin to take “affirmative steps” to siting a consent-based pilot interim storage facility. DOE has been working on generic analyses of how to move forward with an interim storage facility, but now DOE will take a much more proactive approach in talking with actual communities about hosting a facility, Moniz said. Construction of a facility, though, cannot occur without Congressional approval. DOE did not return calls for comment this week on the New Mexico announcement.
