Common environmental hazards and transportation corridors give New Mexico the right to sue the Nuclear Regulatory Commission over a proposed interim storage facility in west Texas, the Land of Enchantment’s top lawyer said in court this week.
In May, NRC argued that New Mexico has no jurisdiction to challenge the agency’s September decision to license Interim Storage Partners’ (ISP) proposed interim storage site in west Texas. That, according to state attorney general Hector Balderas, is “meritless,” according to a Thursday filing with the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals.
In particular, Balderas pushed back on NRC’s contention that New Mexico couldn’t fight the ISP site across state lines.
“[A]lthough the ISP Consolidated Interim Storage Facility … is physically located in Texas, the facility is 0.37 miles from the New Mexico border,” he said. “Moreover, the transportation routes for shipments of spent nuclear fuel … to the ISP CISF utilize New Mexico’s roadways and railways.”
The proposed ISP site also poses an environmental threat to New Mexico’s “quasi-sovereign interests” such as air, water and land quality, as well as “the health and safety of its citizens,” Balderas said.
The attorney general’s filing is the latest salvo in New Mexico’s ongoing challenge to the proposed ISP site. NRC has asked the Tenth Circuit to dismiss Balderas’s case — as of Friday, a judge had yet to rule on that request.
Meanwhile, the commission is also battling the state of Texas over the proposed site in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. Oral arguments in that case are tentatively scheduled for Aug. 29.
If ISP, a joint venture between Waste Control Specialists and Orano USA, manages to build its proposed interim storage site in Andrews County, Texas, the company has said it could eventually hold around 40,000 tons of spent fuel during its 40-year license.
