A New Mexico state Senate panel was scheduled Monday to vote on a bill to block a proposed interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel in the Land of Enchantment.
If made law, Senate Bill 53, sponsored by state Sen. Jeff Steinborn (D), would update New Mexico law to ban the disposal of spent nuclear fuel in the state until Santa Fe has “consented to or concurred” to the construction of a storage facility.
The measure would also block such sites from being built until a national nuclear waste repository is in operation and would update the responsibilities of a statewide radioactive waste task force to include oversight of private disposal sites.
Steinborn’s bill is designed to be a check on Holtec International’s proposed interim storage project, planned for Lea County, N.M. It’s the state senator’s third attempt to keep Holtec out of New Mexico in as many years.
Steinborn, who once compared the proposed site to a planet-killing asteroid, sponsored similar legislation in the last two Senate sessions, but neither bill made its way to Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s (D) desk.
The proposed measure is once again making its way through the state legislature. The state Senate Judiciary Committee was scheduled to debate the bill Monday, according to the committee calendar. The upper chamber’s conservation committee in January cleared the bill with a ‘do pass’ recommendation on a 6-1 vote.
If the judiciary panel reports the proposed bill favorably, it will see a vote on the state Senate floor. The state House’s version of the measure, sponsored by state Rep. Matthew McQueen (D), is currently in the lower chamber’s energy committee.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which is responsible for licensing the proposed Holtec site, has said that it could make a final decision on whether to approve the project by March or so. NRC staff in June recommended that the project receive a license.
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.
