Holtec International is gently pushing back against concerns over its plans to build and operate a facility in southeastern New Mexico for interim storage of spent nuclear fuel from U.S. power reactors.
“Despite what some detractors say, there is no use or them when faced with spent nuclear fuel. We are all in this together, and the [consolidated interim storage facility] is a critically important and unifying step forward for New Mexico and our entire country,” Ed Mayer, Holtec’s program director for the facility, wrote in a July 1 column in the Albuquerque Journal.
Mayer pointed out that the federal government faces tens of billions of dollars in liability payments to nuclear utilities because the Department of Energy failed to meet the congressionally mandated deadline of Jan. 31, 1998, to begin disposal of used reactor fuel. Interim storage could help DOE meet the mandate until a permanent repository is ready.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is reviewing the New Jersey-based energy technology company’s 2017 license application for a facility that could ultimately hold more than 100,000 metric tons of radioactive waste.
In public hearings around the state this spring, New Mexico residents expressed concern about the transport and storage of spent fuel in their communities. Mayer, though, noted that over 1,300 used fuel shipments in the United States over 35 years were completed without safety breaches. “This is in part due to the technologically advanced and robust transportation casks and customized railcars that are designed to withstand a wide range of human-caused and natural disasters.”
In a separate July 1 column in the Journal, a representative of the Sierra Club countered that the Holtec site “has numerous fatal procedural and structural flaws.” For example: the facility could be vulnerable to terrorists’ use of armor-piercing shells and would lack continuous monitoring for any radiation release, according to John Buchser, water issues chair for the environmental organization’s Rio Grande Chapter.
Radiation from the used fuel would remain dangerous for no fewer than 10,000 years, but storage casks could fail much sooner, he wrote.
“It is no wonder that pecan farmers, dairy farmers, and the oil, gas and tourism industries are worried,” Buchser said. “One accident could shut down the entire region.”
