PHOENIX — A New Mexico bill could put Holtec International’s proposed interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel in that state in jeopardy, a company official said here Monday.
“Despite all the efforts and resources used to inform and educate the public and organizations [on the proposed HI-STORE interim storage site], there is currently legislation in the state of New Mexico … that poses a threat to prevent the operation of HI-STORE, and preventing it from implementing the license that we will be granted shortly by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission,” said Myron Kaczmarsky, vice president of Holtec Government Services, during a presentation Monday at the Waste Management Symposium in Phoenix.
The legislation, introduced in January by New Mexico state Sen. Jeff Steinborn (D), would amend state law to make spent fuel storage illegal in the Land of Enchantment without formal consent from Santa Fe. The state Senate passed the measure Feb. 13. The proposal is now working its way through the state House.
Following Monday’s panel, Kaczmarsky softened his remarks, telling the Exchange Monitor that the proposed bill has yet to become law, and that Holtec has “lots of options” in the event that it does.
Kaczmarsky declined to elaborate on what sort of options would be available to Holtec if New Mexico passed a spent fuel storage ban, or whether the company would sue the state over such a law. “We have to wait and see what happens,” he said.
“Obviously, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is going to provide us a license,” Kaczmarsky said, “and we have to wait and see who is going to provide funding for [spent fuel] transportation.”
NRC, the agency responsible for licensing Holtec’s proposed Lea County, N.M., site, has said that it could make a final decision on the project by March. Kaczmarsky said Monday that he was “confident” that the agency would license the site in the coming month, and that Holtec could “potentially” bring the facility online by fall 2026.
If built, Holtec has said that its proposed facility could store up to 8,700 tons of spent nuclear fuel in 500 canisters, with capacity upgrades of up to 10,000 canisters to be added via future license amendments.
