The head of the New Mexico State Land Office on Wednesday accused Holtec International of misrepresenting the safety case for its planned spent nuclear fuel storage facility in the state’s southeast.
“I understand that we need to find a storage solution, but not in the middle of an active oil field, not from a company that is misrepresenting facts and unwilling to answer questions, not on our state trust lands,” State Commissioner of Public Lands Stephanie Garcia Richard said in a prepared statement.
In a letter to Holtec International President and CEO Kris Singh, Garcia Richard said the New Jersey energy technology company had not been fully truthful in describing its planned Lea County, N.M., facility to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Holtec “falsely” indicated local energy operators had committed in writing that nearby oil and gas drilling in the Permian Basin would be limited to 5,000 feet below ground, according to a press release from the Land Office. The agency, which administers New Mexico’s land trust, said no such agreements are in place.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is reviewing Holtec’s application for a 40-year license for underground storage of 8,680 metric tons of spent fuel from nuclear power reactors around the nation. The site, with further regulatory approvals, could ultimately hold more than 100,000 metric tons of radioactive material for up to 120 years. Holtec said in May it anticipates a ruling this year from the federal regulator and the start of operations in 2022.
The Holtec facility could become a resource for the Department of Energy to meet its congressional mandate to remove spent fuel from commercial nuclear power plants. The department is over 21 years beyond its Jan. 31, 1998, deadline to begin taking what is now a roughly 80,000-metric-ton stockpile.
In a June 7 letter to NRC Chairman Kristine Svinicki and Energy Secretary Rick Perry, New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D), who took office in January after serving three terms in Congress, said used fuel storage in the state would be “unacceptable.”
Previously a Democratic Party state lawmaker, Garcia Richard was also elected to her current office in November 2018.
Both Grisham and Garcia Richard emphasized the potential risk to energy extraction operations in the region. There are close to 2,500 oil, gas, and mineral sites within a 10-mile radius of Holtec’s chosen location, according to the Land Office release.
“We are talking about storing over 120,000 metric tons of nuclear waste in an extremely active oil field without a clear picture of the potential hazards of that combination,” Garcia Richard said. “For example, I’m not aware of any studies demonstrating the safety of fracking beneath a nuclear storage site. There is no guarantee that high-level nuclear waste can be safely transported to and through New Mexico. There is no guarantee that there won’t be a hazardous interaction between the storage site and nearby oil, gas, and mining activities.”
The NRC said Thursday it had no immediate comment on Garcia Richard’s statement.
The 1,000 acres of land on which the facility would be built was provided by the Eddy-Lea Energy Alliance, a coalition of Eddy and Lea counties and the cities of Carlsbad and Hobbs. Both Holtec and its partner have emphasized the safety of the storage facility, in which specially designed stainless-steel canisters filed with used fuel assemblies would be placed in hardened underground slots.
“We continue to work closely with our partner, Eddy Lea Energy Alliance (ELEA) and community leaders to ensure that we meet all regulatory requirements and address all concerns,” Joy Russell, Holtec senior vice president and chief strategy officer, said in a statement Thursday. “We have spent the last several years working closely with the Office of the Governor and the Office of the State Land Commissioner during the previous administration and will continue to work with the new state leadership. We look forward to further constructive discussions as this process moves forward.”
