The Board of County Commissioners of Bernalillo County, N.M., on Tuesday unanimously approved a resolution opposing rail transport of spent nuclear reactor fuel through the jurisdiction.
The northern New Mexico county joins Albuquerque and other jurisdictions in expressing concerns about Holtec International’s plans for a consolidated interim storage facility for used fuel in the state’s southeastern region.
“An accident could leave (sic) to the release of radioactive materials causing an environmental catastrophe that could cost millions or billions of dollars to remediate,” according to the summary for the resolution from Commissioner Debbie O’Malley, which the board approved on a voice vote. “The Commission believes that this resolution sets forth substantial groups to oppose the [Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s] granting of the license to operate its proposed temporary holding facility.”
Holtec, a New Jersey-based energy technology company, last year submitted a license application for a facility with a planned maximum capacity of more than 100,000 metric tons of radioactive material. The NRC is expected by 2020 to complete its technical review of the application, and with a license the facility could open by 2022.
“Nobody knows exactly what the routes would be, but we all know there are railroad lines that come through Bernalillo County, so any or all of those lines could be at risk,” Don Hancock, Nuclear Waste Safety Program director for the nongovernmental Southwest Research and Information Center, told the board.
Consolidated interim storage is seen as an avenue for the Department of Energy to meet its congressional mandate to remove spent fuel from U.S. reactors while it tries to build a permanent repository. Hancock said the fuel remains safe at its point of generation.
Holtec did not respond by deadline Wednesday to a request for comment regarding the Bernalillo County resolution.
Proponents of consolidated storage and permanent disposal of spent fuel note the safe global record of transport of radioactive materials. New testing overseen by DOE’s Sandia National Laboratories, based in New Mexico, supported the safety finding.
