PHOENIX — An executive with an energy coalition representing the host community of a proposed interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel in New Mexico asked attendees at an industry conference Tuesday to help ensure that a bill introduced in Congress last week, aimed at blocking the site, dies.
“I implore any of you that meet with your senators and congressmen, let them know that this is a good project,” said Jack Volpato, treasurer of the Eddy-Lea Energy Alliance (ELEA), during a panel discussion Tuesday at the annual Waste Management Symposium in Phoenix. “You don’t want this to be killed on a political whim.”
Volpato was speaking out against a bill introduced in Congress March 2 by Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) that, if it became law, would preclude the federal government from funding private interim storage projects such as those proposed by Interim Storage Partners in Texas and Holtec International in New Mexico. ELEA supports the proposed Holtec site, which would be built in Eddy County, N.M.
The proposed measure was referred to the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee March 2 and the committee had not scheduled a hearing as of Tuesday afternoon.
Volpato said that he understood the concerns raised by the Senate bill and a separate proposed measure that died last month in the New Mexico state house: that an interim storage site could become a de facto permanent disposal facility for spent fuel.
“But, we see this as moving the ball downhill,” he said, “just so that [the Department of Energy] has to take notice and say, ‘we have to do something about this. We have to cite a long term geological repository.’”
The proposed Holtec site is “a long-term project that benefits everybody,” Volpato said. “Please help us out to make sure that this bill languishes.”
Holtec thinks the Nuclear Regulatory Commission could approve the company’s proposed site in New Mexico by June, a company executive said here on Monday. The commission, meanwhile, was preparing a third round of questions for the Camden, N.J.-based nuclear services company — information the government says it needs to complete required safety and environmental surveys.
