Jeremy L. Dillon
RW Monitor
9/11/2015
SUMMERLIN, NEV.—The re-opening of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant will take state precedence over a possible consolidated interim storage facility in New Mexico, NM’s Environment Department Secretary Ryan Flynn said this week at the 2015 RadWaste Summit. While Flynn remains supportive of the local communities effort to license and construct an interim facility, he emphasized the state’s resources and time at the moment are focused only on the WIPP re-opening. “From my perspective, we are supportive of the communities’ interest in really moving forward and trying to pursue this option, but that does not mean that we’re focusing on that,” Flynn said. “That community’s effort is going to be a long-term effort, and our priority is just on recovering WIPP itself. This is the facility we have. It’s not a possibility; it’s our facility. It’s a huge resource to the entire country. It’s currently not operating, so that has to be the top priority.”
The Eddy Lea Energy Alliance announced earlier this year that the group of local communities had entered into a memorandum of agreement with Holtec for construction of an interim storage facility. Under the terms of the agreement, the ELEA will provide land and local logistics support including existing environmental characterization data; meanwhile, Holtec will design the facility, perform all necessary safety evaluations, secure Nuclear Regulatory Commission approvals, and build and operate the facility. Holtec estimates that it can have the facility constructed, licensed, and operating by 2020.
The group has the support of the communities near the planned facility and the state governor, Susana Martinez (R), but New Mexico’s U.S. senators both have voiced their opposition to the plan. Sens. Tom Udall (D-N.M.) and Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) said they could not support the plan unless the federal government establishes a permanent disposal pathway for spent fuel. Both Senators also indicated that DOE’s and New Mexico’s focus should be on reopening the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant following the radiological release that occurred there last year.
Flynn did not offer any disagreement to the Senator’s objections. “I don’t disagree with some of the people who have raised that issue to make sure we get WIPP back up and running again before we start making decisions or focusing on other issues,” Flynn said. “From my perspective, that’s absolutely right because I have limited resources, and I need to focus on our priorities in terms of really dealing with something that at this point is really hypothetical versus spending time and resources fixing the problems at the WIPP facility. That’s an easy decision for me to make.”
New Mexico joins Texas as one of the state governments willing to look at potentially hosting an interim storage facility. Last Year, former Gov. Rick Perry (R) and Texas Speaker of the House Joe Straus (R) both voiced their support for looking at the potential of hosting an interim storage facility. Straus has asked state lawmakers to begin considering the logistics and economic impact of potentially hosting a high-level radioactive waste disposal site or interim storage facility, and Perry charged the Texas Commission of Environmental Quality to prepare a report looking at the history of spent fuel disposal and lessons-learned from previous attempts. Citing this state level support, Waste Control Specialists announced earlier this year its intention to construct a commercial interim storage facility by 2020.
