A key committee of the New Mexico Legislature appears split on whether to support plans by Holtec International to build a large-scale storage site in the state to hold used fuel from U.S. nuclear reactors.
Seven of the 12 voting members of the legislature’s bicameral Radioactive and Hazardous Materials Interim Committee in recent weeks signed a “Resolution of Voting Members” stating their strong support for the proposed consolidated interim storage facility in Lea County.
Committee member Gay Kernan, a Republican state senator from the area, said the document was presented by John Heaton, chairman of the Eddy-Lea Energy Alliance. The organization – a coalition of Eddy and Lea counties and the cities of Hobbs and Carlsbad in southeastern New Mexico – is working with Holtec to develop the project.
“You have to have a place for this stuff to find a home,” Kernan told Weapons Complex Morning Briefing.
Committee Chairman Jeff Steinborn was among the lawmakers who did not sign the document, which he said was not a resolution because it did not receive a vote before the full panel. The Democratic Party senator from Las Cruces, who has publicly questioned the Holtec project, called the three-page paper “a glorified letter of support.”
Holtec, an energy technology company based in Camden, N.J., hopes by 2020 to receive an NRC license to store 8,680 metric tons of spent fuel. But, with additional NRC authorizations, the facility could hold well over 100,000 metric tons of material in storage canisters placed just below ground.
The Holtec facility would provide 215 “well paid jobs” and a significant capital investment for the region, the seven lawmakers said. Casks used for moving the used fuel from reactor sites around the nation are “the strongest and most robust … ever licensed by the NRC,” featuring a 15-inch wall of steel and lead, according to the resolution. In storage, the fuel assemblies would remain sealed inside a stainless-steel canister that will stay within the cask.
