Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, New Mexico’s members of the U.S. Senate are urging the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to suspend its review of the license application for a spent nuclear fuel storage facility in their state.
From Aug. 20 through Wednesday, the federal regulator conducted four webinars on its draft environmental impact statement (EIS) for Holtec International’s planned consolidated interim storage facility in Lea County. That followed two online meetings earlier this summer, and replaced plans for in-person events in New Mexico due to the current health crisis.
In an Aug. 18 letter to NRC Chairman Kristine Svinicki, Sens. Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich (both D-N.M.), noted that the agency had previously committed to five public meetings around the state on the draft EIS. Given the “profound health and safety impacts” of the Holtec project, time must be given for the public to understand the matter and provide input on the environmental document, they wrote.
“We appreciate that the COVID-19 pandemic has created logistical and health concerns of its own to be able to move forward with in-person meetings at this time, but there are no legal or statutory deadlines requiring the Commission to rush to complete this review by any certain time,” according to the letter, first reported by the Carlsbad Current-Argus. “Therefore, we believe the best course of action is to pause the process until such time as it is safe to resume.”
Pushing ahead with the licensing during this time suggests the commission places more importance on supporting a corporate stakeholder rather than individuals and the lawmakers elected to represent them, the two senators wrote. The agency should also consider that some members of the public could have issues with broadband access or other challenges that could hinder their ability to participate in a virtual session, according to Udall and Heinrich, the latter of whom on Thursday announced bipartisan legislation to improve broadband access in Native American communities.
“Decisions of storing high-level nuclear waste deserve the full attention and participation of the oversight organization in the communities that they will be impacting,” the letter says.
On Wednesday, an NRC spokesman said only that the agency would respond to the letter through its normal process.
Holtec International, an energy technology company headquartered in Camden. N.J., in March 2017 applied for a 40-year NRC license for storage of up to 8,680 metric tons of used fuel from nuclear power plants. Ultimately, the facility could hold in excess of 100,000 metric tons of material for 120 years.
“Holtec appreciates the concerns expressed by New Mexico’s U.S. Senators, however we have no control over the NRC licensing process or the process for collecting public comment on the Draft EIS,” the company said Friday in a prepared statement. “We will abide by any decision the NRC determines is best for collecting public comment and is best for protecting the public health and safety during this pandemic.”
A separate corporate team, Interim Storage Partners, has applied for a federal license for a site in West Texas with a 40,000-metric-ton capacity. Both NRC reviews are expected to cost $7.5 million, with the applicants footing the bills.
Earlier this year, NRC staff issued draft reports that preliminarily found both facilities would have minimal environmental impacts and should be licensed. The final versions are due to be issued by next summer, later than initially planned and subject to further delays due to the pandemic. The final environmental impact statements will contribute to the agency’s rulings on the license applications. Both Holtec and Interim Storage Partners hope to begin operations at their sites by the mid-2020s.
There is now more than 80,000 metric tons of used fuel spread around dozens of U.S. locations, primarily stored above-ground at the nuclear power plants where it was generated. The Department of Energy is legally responsible for disposal of that waste, but has nowhere to put it. The interim storage sites could provide a temporary option, though language in federal law might force the companies to contract directly with the used-fuel holders, rather than the Energy Department.
The potential for interim storage to become permanent has been one of the leading concerns raised by critics of the projects, which include environmental groups, regional oil and gas operators, and the administration of New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D).
Intervention Petition
Meanwhile, a three-member board at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is expected to rule by Sept. 21 on potential incorporation of a pair of Texas-based oil and gas interests in the licensing proceeding for Holtec International’s planned spent-fuel storage facility.
The joint intervention request from Fasken Land and Minerals Ltd. and the Permian Basin Land and Royalty Owners (PBLRO) is the last still being considered by the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board (ASLB).
The board – consisting of a lawyer and two nuclear engineers – on Aug. 5 heard oral arguments on the Fasken group’s request to reopen the record for its original petition and to file an amended contention addressing NRC staff’s draft environmental impact statement on the Holtec project. In line with federal safety measures during the COVID-19 pandemic, the session was conducted remotely.
Fasken drills in the Permian Basin — a huge underground oil-producing reservoir that covers the western half of Texas and stretches into Lea County, N.M., where the Holtec facility would be built. The PBLRO is an organization formed specifically to oppose the Holtec project, due to concerns about potential impacts on regional energy production.
The Fasken/PBLRO group was among a number of organizations that petitioned the NRC to intervene and a hearing in the Holtec and Interim Storage Partners licensing proceedings. Other petitioners included the Sierra Club and Beyond Nuclear.
The original petitions raised contentions about cultural impacts, air quality, groundwater quality, acts of terrorism, radiation leaks, transportation, and other matters. If approved, the parties would be able to raise those contentions as formal members of the licensing proceeding.
The Atomic Safety and Licensing Board in May 2019 rejected all petitions in the Holtec license application. Nearly all the parties appealed to the full commission, which in April upheld most of the earlier decision. That has then generated two appeals in federal court from Beyond Nuclear and a coalition of environmental groups headed by Don’t Waste Michigan.
However, the commission did direct the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board to reconsider six contentions.
Four of those were among the 29 originally filed by the Sierra Club, while the other two were individual contentions from the Sierra Club and Fasken/PBLRO filed after the end of the initial Atomic Safety and Licensing Board proceeding.
The four appealed contentions from the Sierra Club broadly involved the hydrogeologic characteristics of the land in Lea County on which the facility would be built. The board in June said the environmental organization’s argued shortcomings in all four contentions did not sufficiently challenge the overall conclusions by Holtec that the hydrogeologic conditions in the region did not pose a significant environmental risk to its project.
It determined the other two contentions from the Sierra Club and Fasken/PBLRO cover roughly the same issues, with the geologic concerns focusing on the possibility of rock layers beneath and around Holtec’s proposed site being prone to sinking.
The Sierra Club’s appeal of the ASLB latest ruling has already gone back to the full commission.
On Aug. 5, Allan Kanner, Fasken’s attorney, argued that the draft environmental impact study released by the NRC in March neglected to address oil and natural gas drilling matters in the area.
“The omission of that information itself is significant. …. There is no control of the mineral rights in this area, and our understanding is that people can still go in and drill,” Kanner said. One study said there are 527 boreholes within 6 miles of Holtec’s site.
Also, Kanner noted there have been four earthquakes with a magnitude of 5.0 or greater on the Richter scale within 200 miles of the Lea County location, with the latest being 50 miles away last spring. In the past two months, roughly 20 earthquakes of a magnitude of 2.5 or greater have occurred within 25 miles of the site. A 5.0 is enough to be felt by almost all people while damaging poorly constructed buildings while either not damaging or slightly damaging other buildings. A 2.5 translates to being slightly felt by some people with no damage to buildings.
Kanner contended these factors contribute to sinkholes and to the sinking of subterranean rock formations, which decreases the stability of the ground at and around Holtec’s selected site. He argued the March draft EIS painted a picture of a moderately dangerous geologic dilutions that is not understood very well — worse than previous geologic reports o the area.
Holtec attorney Jay Silberg countered that Fasken and the coalition did not submit these specific arguments by an NRC September 2018 deadline to provide input to the draft EIS.
“Given the 70 years that Fasken has been drilling wells in the Permian Basin and the 40-plus years it’s been drilling in the vicinity of the Holtec site, it’s not credible that Fasken hasn’t known for years the information which it now says is new and which it learned only from the (draft EIS,),” Silberg said.
Attorney Rebecca Susko, representing NRC staff, agreed with Holtec’s argument that Fasken missed the 2018 deadline to address the issue of geologic layerx sinking.
Susko and Silberg said the draft EIS indicated a small danger due to geologic issues. Kanner argued the EIS described a moderate danger beyond what was previously acknowledged on this matter.
ASLB Chairman Paul Ryerson appeared to lean in favor of Holtec’s and the NRC staff’s argument that Fasken was bringing on the sinking rock layers too late in the environmental studies process. “They know a lot about it. …. At least collectively, the whole group has been drilling there for 80 years,” Ryerson said.
