One of the first big milestones in the frenzy of legal challenges to commercially operated interim storage sites for spent nuclear fuel is coming up in a few weeks in Albuquerque, where a federal judge was due to hear arguments for and against tossing a lawsuit against a proposed Holtec site in the state’s southeastern reaches.
The dismissal hearing was on the docket for Jan. 20 in the U.S. District Court for New Mexico, according to a Dec. 30 court filing. New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas filed suit in March, arguing that Holtec International’s planned interim storage site would run afoul of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act (NWPA) if it licensed and constructed in Eddy County, N.M.
Balderas said the federal law prevents the Nuclear Regulatory Commission from licensing an interim storage site in the absence of a permanent repository. NRC says that because the commission is governed by the Atomic Energy Act (AEA), not NWPA, the agency can license private interim storage sites like Holtec’s, and like the one proposed across the border in Texas by the Orano-Waste Control Specialists joint venture Interim Storage Partners. NRC licensed the proposed Texas site in September.
While NRC and New Mexico hash things out in court, the commission’s licensing process for the proposed Holtec site has hit a few more speedbumps. The agency told the Camden, N.J., nuclear services company in November that it would again delay a required safety review of the proposed site and its final licensing decision until Holtec could provide some more information staff needs to wrap things up.
NRC had planned to make a final decision on the proposed site in January and had not, as of Friday, updated that schedule.
