The president of a New Mexico-based conservative nonprofit organization in a recent op-ed railed on what he called “ignorance and hysteria” among the opposition to two proposed interim storage facilities for spent nuclear fuel in the southwest U.S.
“[S]tate and federal politicians, working with anti-nuclear agitators, have been fiercely resistant” to proposed consolidated interim storage facilities (CISFs) in New Mexico and Texas, Patrick Brenner, president of the Rio Rancho, N.M.-based Southwest Public Policy Institute, wrote in the editorial dated Feb. 3. “Happily, to date, all efforts to derail the regulatory process have been unsuccessful.”
Santa Fe has been fighting hard in recent months against Holtec International’s proposed spent fuel storage facility in the state, currently under licensing review at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
State legislators have filed bills aimed at blocking the project — so far, unsuccessfully. The newest iteration of that legislation, currently working its way through the state house, is “likely to be overturned,” Brenner contended.
The think tank president pointed to 2018 comments from New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas, in which, he argued, the top lawyer admitted the state had “limited recourse” to block the Holtec site. Balderas has sued NRC in two different federal courts over the proposed facility.
That opposition is “the worst kind of NIMBY opportunism” to a project that could, along with a similar site planned for west Texas, become “a hub for storage of SNF until a permanent solution for the national impasse is found,” Brenner said.
Brenner also lauded the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals’ Jan. 25 decision to dismiss a lawsuit against NRC filed by a coalition “green radicals” over the Texas site, proposed by Orano-Waste Control Specialists joint venture Interim Storage Partners (ISP).
“If leaders in Texas and New Mexico could look past the politics, and see the opportunity, they’d understand how CISFs can benefit their states,” Brenner said. “Absent such vision, let’s hope that common sense, sound science/engineering, and wise judicial analysis prevail over ignorance and hysteria.”
If built, Holtec has said that its proposed site could hold up to 8,700 tons of spent fuel in 500 canisters, with capacity for an additional 10,000 canisters via license amendments. NRC has said it could make a final licensing decision on that project by March.
Meanwhile, the agency licensed the proposed ISP site in September 2021. The company has said that its proposed Andrews, Texas site could hold up to 40,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel.
