The Albuquerque City Council last week voiced its divided opposition to potential rail transport of spent nuclear fuel through the jurisdiction on its way to a planned storage facility further south in New Mexico.

“The City Council of Albuquerque opposes the transportation of high-level radioactive waste, including Holtec’s ‘spent’ nuclear reactor fuel, on our railways through the City of Albuquerque for the purpose of temporary consolidated storage of high-level radioactive waste in New Mexico,” according to the “memorial” approved on May 21 and enacted on Thursday.

New Jersey-based energy technology company Holtec International is seeking a U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission license for a storage facility in southeastern New Mexico with maximum capacity of more than 100,000 metric tons of used reactor fuel now stranded at nuclear power plants around the country. The site would centralize and hold the radioactive material until a permanent national repository is ready.

The City Council memorial indicated its supporters aren’t sold on any form of interim storage of “the nation’s most dangerous nuclear waste.”

“[T]his ‘spent’ nuclear reactor fuel should remain secured at or near the site of generation and be transported only once, when a scientifically viable permanent disposal site becomes available,” according to the document, sponsored by Councilor Patrick Davis.

Davis and fellow Councilors Ken Sanchez, Klarissa Peña, and Cynthia Borrego voted in favor of the memorial. It was opposed by Councilors Don Harris, Brad Winter, and Trudy Jones. Councilor Diane Gibson abstained and Councilor Isaac Benton was excused from the vote.

The Council members who supported the memorial are Democrats, the opponents are Republicans, the Albuquerque Journal reported.