The New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) has raised a long list of concerns about a draft of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s environmental impact statement for a planned used nuclear fuel storage facility in the state.
Even as Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) and other state leaders have objected to the project from energy technology company Holtec International, NMED last year successfully requested to be made a cooperating agency in the NRC review of the license application for the facility.
“Based on NMED’s review of Holtec’s application and relevant sections of the working draft EIS [environmental impact statement], we identified concerns that must be addressed in the Draft EIS the NRC publishes for review. Key shortcomings of the current draft EIS include groundwater characterization, analysis of pathways from the site to groundwater, protection of surface waters of the state, applicability of relevant New Mexico standards for groundwater and surface water, and long-term monitoring of environmental impacts from the site,” Rebecca Roose, director of the state agency’s Water Protection Division, wrote in a Dec. 16 letter to John Tappert, NRC director of rulemaking, environmental, and financial support.
The letter was posted last week to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission website. It is attached to a 23-page document laying out dozens of issues within areas including ground water, geology, surface water, waste materials, mitigation, and state permits.
Holtec in March 2017 applied for a 40-year NRC license for construction and operation of a facility with storage capacity for 8,680 metric tons of spent fuel from nuclear power plants, With additional authorization from the federal regulator, the facility could hold more than 100,000 metric tons of radioactive waste for up to 120 years.
The environmental impact statement would be central to approval of the license. A formal draft should be issued soon for public input, with a final version due in March 2021, NRC spokesman Scott Burnell said by email Friday. Holtec hopes to receive its license shortly after that.
Asked about the issues raised by the state, Burnell said “The draft EIS (and of course the final) will discuss the staff’s interactions with relevant organizations.”
