The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has denied the latest, and presumably last, request to extend the comment period on the scope of its environmental impact statement for a proposed spent fuel storage site in southeastern New Mexico.
Monday was the agency’s deadline for public input on this aspect of the NRC technical review of the license application from Holtec International. The end date had already been pushed back from late May, but parties in New Mexico and around the country wanted even more time.
“Today remains the deadline for Holtec,” NRC spokesman David McIntyre said by email Monday. “Staff will assess the comments and draw up a scoping report to inform the draft EIS.”
On July 19, nearly 40 environmental and antinuclear groups requested the comment period be extended to Oct. 30 so they could digest the anticipated response from the NRC to a Freedom of Information Act request for 144 pages of a Holtec environmental document that was previously redacted upon release to the public.
“Today is the current deadline, without extension, and we’ve advised those associated with opposition to Holtec to treat today as the deadline,” Terry Lodge, an attorney representing the organization Don’t Waste Michigan, which filed the FOIA request, said by email. “That means there will be quite a volume of comments filed, which the Commission is likely to use against considering any further extension.”
More than 2,000 comments have been filed to date. However, the majority of those are identical statements signed by different individuals, McIntyre noted.
The NRC is expected to rule by 2020 on the Holtec application, which covers storage of 8,680 metric tons of radioactive waste in Lea County, N.M., between the cities of Hobbs and Carlsbad. With subsequent approvals from the agency, the site could ultimately hold more than 100,000 metric tons until the Department of Energy builds a permanent repository for the material.
