The New Mexico legislature will again try to legally prohibit Holtec International from building an interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel in the state, according to a bill filed this week.
The legislation, introduced Wednesday by state Sen. Jeff Steinborn (D), would if signed amend state law to ban disposal of spent nuclear fuel in New Mexico “until the state has consented to or concurred in the creation of” a disposal facility.
The bill would also adjust the duties of an existing statewide radioactive waste task force and allow the body to examine the effects of proposed private nuclear waste disposal facilities. Currently, the task force considers only federal sites.
In addition to securing state consent, Steinborn’s bill would ban spent-fuel storage sites in New Mexico until a permanent federal nuclear waste repository is in operation.
This isn’t Steinborn’s first attempt at a legislative counter to Holtec International’s proposed interim storage facility in Lea County, N.M. The state senator in the last two sessions introduced similar bills but neither reached Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s (D) desk.
The bill’s most recent iteration is pending before the state Senate Conservation Committee. As of Thursday, the panel had yet to debate the measure — the 2023 legislative session began Tuesday.
Currently, there is no permanent storage solution for nuclear waste in the U.S. The only congressionally-designated site for such a task, Nevada’s Yucca Mountain, remains unfinished after the Barack Obama administration in 2010 pulled the project’s funding.
The proposed Holtec site is one of two such private interim storage projects planned for the country’s southwest. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission in September 2021 licensed a similar site proposed for west Texas by Waste Control Specialists-Orano joint venture Interim Storage Partners.
NRC is still reviewing Holtec’s own license application, although agency staff in June recommended it receive one. The commission has said that it could make a final decision as early as February.
If it gets built, Holtec has said that its site would initially be able to store around 8,700 tons of spent nuclear fuel in 500 canisters, with capacity for an additional 10,000 canisters that could be added through future license amendments.
