New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) has formally objected to commercial plans for an interim storage facility in the state for spent fuel from U.S. nuclear power reactors.
Holtec International, of Camden, N.J., has applied for a 40-year license from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission for a facility that ultimately could hold up to 173,000 metric tons of the radioactive waste. The site would be built in Lea County in southeastern New Mexico.
“A facility of this nature poses an unacceptable risk to New Mexicans, who look to southeastern New Mexico as a driver of economic growth in our state,” Lujan Grisham wrote in a June 7 letter to NRC Chairman Kristine Svinicki and Energy Secretary Rick Perry. “New Mexico’s agricultural industry contributes approximately $3 billion per year to the state’s economy, $300 million of which is generated in Lea and Eddy Counties, where the proposed facility is to be sited.”
Lujan Grisham, who served in Congress from 2013 to 2018, also noted that the Permian Basin oil and gas reservoir stretches under southeastern New Mexico and West Texas. Lea and Eddy counties were ranked No. 2 and No. 6 in U.S. oil production as of 2019 by the U.S. Energy Information Administration, according to her letter. In total, New Mexico earned $2 billion from its oil and gas sector in 2018, the governor added.
“Establishing an interim storage facility in this region would be economic malpractice,” she wrote. “Any disruption of oil and gas activities as a result of a perceived or actual incident would be catastrophic to New Mexico, and any steps toward siting such a project could cause a decrease in investment in two of our state’s biggest industries.”
Along with her letter, Lujan Grisham attached what she said were letters of opposition to the facility from the New Mexico Cattle Growers’ Association, the New Mexico Farm and Livestock Bureau, and the Permian Basin Petroleum Association.
However, the head of the Permian Basin Petroleum Association told the Midland, Texas, Reporter-Telegram this week that the organization does not intend to take any stance on the planned Holtec facility or a separate spent fuel storage site planned nearby in Andrews County, Texas.
The NRC is conducting technical reviews of the license applications from Holtec and Interim Storage Partners, including environmental and safety assessments. The reviews are expected to be completed by mid-2020, after which the agency’s Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards will rule on the applications.
In an environmental report last month on its facility, Holtec said it anticipates the NRC will complete its environmental impact statement and issue the license this year. That would be followed by construction and testing, with Phase 1 operations beginning in early 2022 for storage of up to 8,680 metric tons of waste. With license extensions, the facility could operate for up to 120 years, Holtec said.
With regulatory approval, the Holtec site could provide the Energy Department with an option for meeting its legal mandate to remove tens of thousands of tons of radioactive waste from storage around the nation in the continued absence of a permanent federal repository. The agency is already more than 21 years past the Jan. 31, 1998, deadline set by Congress to begin taking that material.
In her letter, Lujan Grisham also noted concerns that interim storage could become permanent if the federal government remains unable to build a permanent repository for the waste.
The NRC’s Svinicki is likely to respond to the governor’s letter, an agency spokesman said this week, without elaborating.
The Energy Department and Holtec this week did not respond to queries regarding the governor’s letter. The company, though, has emphasized the safety and security of its below-ground storage approach.
“HI-STORM UMAX stores thecanister containing SNF entirely below-ground to serve as a ‘security-friendly’ storage facility, providing a clear, unobstructed view of the entire CIS Facility from any location and the closure lid is a massive steel weldment filled with concrete, virtually eliminating the storage contents as a
target for malevolent acts,” according to Holtec’s environmental report. “The CIS Facility does not require any utilities (water, compressed air, or electric power) for its operation post emplacement, eliminating any elements of vulnerability to terrorism.”
A spokesperson said the governor met last month with representatives from the Eddy-Lea Energy Alliance (ELEA), a coalition of local governments that is working with Holtec to develop the spent fuel storage site. Details of the discussion were not available.
The New Mexico Environment Department, the state regulator for radioactive material, has also had early talks about the facility with Holtec, ELEA, and the NRC, spokeswoman Maddy Hayden said Thursday by email.
“It is likely that one or more NMED bureaus would have some role in permitting such a facility for operation, but determining that role would largely be speculative at this point as we have not received any requests from Holtec,” Hayden wrote.
The Eddy-Lea Energy Alliance – representing Lea and Eddy countries and the cities of Carlsbad and Hobbs – provided the roughly 1,100 acres of land on which the facility would stand.
“Unfortunately, we have not really had a chance to give [Lujan Grisham] a presentation on the project, so that she understands the facts and not just hyperbole,” ELEA Vice Chair John Heaton told the Roswell Daily Record. “This was very disappointing to me. … I frankly have been very enthused about this governor, her enthusiasm and her ability to make things happen, but I think this was the wrong step on her part.”
Heaton could not be reached for comment this week.
