The guv and the state's congressional delegation pitched a fit Tuesday when a federal company lastly offered the consent for a nuclear energy job in Southeast New Mexico that locals desire and have purchased. That was easy.
What they didn't do was offer any options for the storage of spent business nuclear fuel.
After five years of study, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Tuesday granted a license for Holtec International to keep spent nuclear fuel on secluded home in Southeast New Mexico. The NRC approved the license application after a technical safety and security evaluation, and an ecological impact evaluation that found the effect on land and water, market and public health would be minimal.
The license permits Holtec to get, have, transfer and initially store 500 cylinders of spent nuclear fuel for 40 years, with a choice for an extra 40 years. Holtec intend to ultimately store underground up to 10,000 stainless steel casks of spent nuclear pellets throughout 19 growths phases. The $2.4 billion project will bring 300-plus building and construction, security and production tasks to the region.
But the task has dealt with stiff partisan opposition from Democrats.
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham reiterated her steadfast opposition in a joint statement Tuesday with state Attorney General Raúl Torrez. It's not totally clear why the state's leading police is weighing in on an energy problem that has actually followed treatments and laws.
Lujan Grisham and Torrez referred to Senate Bill 53, legislation passed by Democrats in the 2023 session, that restricts any state or city government from granting licenses for a nuclear-waste disposal job unless the state consents.
" In the meantime, we are evaluating offered legal option and will take any action needed to make sure that ground is never ever broken on this 'interim' facility in New Mexico," the governor and AG said.
Holtec, which has actually invested $80 million during the NRC application procedure, will likely challenge SB 53 in federal court, and will likely win. Federal agencies, not the state, are empowered to manage nuclear safety. SB 53 is a back-door law planned to strangle Holtec by avoiding it from acquiring permits for such things as construction and industrial wastewater.
Sen. Martin Heinrich said in a separate statement Tuesday no regulatory commission "need to be utilizing interim standards to approve indefinite storage" until there is an irreversible repository for invested nuclear fuel. Fair point. Heinrich, the rest of the state's delegation, the guv and the AG easily do not mention the U.S. lacks a permanent storage site since their fellow Democrat, the late Sen. Harry Reid, obstructed the genuinely long-term storage website in Yucca Mountain after Congress rather actually sank $15 billion of taxpayer cash into what is now the most expensive, empty parking garage in America. There is nowhere to transfer more than 70,000 metric tons of used reactor fuel from industrial power plants at 73 sites across 39 states-- even though U.S. law needs one. How about implementing that law?
Heinrich ended his statement: "New Mexicans didn't register for this."
They'll fill you in on the Eddy-Lea Energy Alliance that southeastern New Mexico leaders formed in 2006 and the thousand acres of remote livestock grazing land ELEA purchased specifically for Holtec between Carlsbad and Hobbs. And then there are the nuclear professionals who work in our 3 nationwide labs and at WIPP and Urenco.
It's time for state leaders to put their politics aside, acknowledge the science and the frightening truth we have invested nuclear waste resting on water level across the nation, and support the bridge carbon-neutral nuclear power offers. And it's time for our delegation in D.C. to move beyond inexpensive partisan sound bites and in fact do something about securely storing nuclear waste.
This editorial first appeared in the
Albuquerque Journal. It was written by members of the editorial board and is unsigned as it represents the viewpoint of the newspaper rather than the writers.
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