A bill making its way through the New Mexico state legislature aimed at blocking a proposed interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel in the state will no longer ban the storage of such waste outright, according to amendments adopted in committee Monday.
A package of amendments on House Bill 127, adopted by unanimous vote in the lower chamber’s Judiciary Committee Monday, removed the measure’s proposed absolute ban on the storage of high-level nuclear waste and spent fuel in New Mexico.
The proposed bill was also updated to allow the state to block certification of a nuclear waste storage site on economic, environmental or environmental justice grounds until a federal repository is operating, sponsor state Rep. Matthew McQueen (D) told the committee.
The amended bill passed unanimously in the Judiciary Committee. The committee recommended that the full state House pass the legislation, as committees are allowed to do in the New Mexico legislature.
The proposed bill is aimed at blocking Holtec International’s application with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for a license to build an interim storage facility for spent fuel in Eddy County, N.M.
The amendments came amid concerns that an absolute high-level waste ban, or a ban on safety grounds, would not be upheld in court, McQueen told the committee Monday. It’s a sentiment that was echoed in a fiscal estimate last week by the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED). The agency suggested that the state articulate “other bases” for banning spent fuel to give the ban a fighting chance.
Even if the amended bill becomes law, some legislators such as state Rep. Larry Scott (R) — who voted against the measure in the House Energy, Environment and Natural Resources Committee last week — still believe New Mexico would have legal trouble blocking Holtec’s proposed site on environmental grounds.
“From the standpoint of environmental issues, which I think are already addressed by the NRC, it looks to me like the only avenues that might be available [to block the proposed site] .. would be with respect to water,” Scott told RadWaste Monitor in a phone call Thursday. “I am very familiar with the immediate area, which is dotted by [salt] playa lakes that have no outlet,” he said. “There are no freshwater resources anywhere in the immediate vicinity of that proposed location, and I don’t believe that that objection would stay.”
The legislation also faced opposition from Dale Janway, mayor of Carlsbad, N.M., the closest city to the proposed Holtec site. Janway told the state House’s energy panel last week that the project is “very important to economic development in our area,” and that if built the Holtec site would bring around 350 jobs and roughly $3 billion in “capital investment.”
“The proposed Holtec project uses the safest and most secure dry storage technology available,” Janway said.
Janway’s office didn’t return a request for further comment by deadline Friday for RadWaste Monitor.
Meanwhile, the state Senate-side version of the proposed bill, sponsored by state Sen. Jeff Steinborn (D), is awaiting debate in the upper chamber’s Judiciary Committee after passing the state Senate Conservation Committee Feb. 1. The measure was scheduled for the judiciary panel Wednesday afternoon but no debate occurred. The committee next meets Friday.
New Mexico’s legislative push to ban high-level waste storage comes as NRC is still reviewing Holtec’s application — a process that has been delayed while the agency waits for information it needs from the Camden, N.J., nuclear services company to complete required safety and environmental reviews.
If licensed, Holtec has said that the proposed facility could store around 8,700 tons of nuclear waste in 500 canisters, with room for an additional 10,000 storage canisters that could be added through future license amendments.
