A location near Nara Visa, N.M., is in the running with a handful of other sites for the Energy Department’s deep borehole nuclear waste storage field test.
A group led by Georgia-based Enercon Federal Services, Inc. and DOSECC Exploration Services presented plans this week for a potential test site in Quay County, N.M., about 300 miles north of DOE’s Waste Isolation Plant, near the New Mexico-Texas border. Quay County commissioners approved a resolution on Monday in support of the group’s proposal, stating that it will bring “both economic and educational benefits to our citizens.”
The estimated five-year, $35 million project would produce data on the feasibility of storing DOE-managed nuclear waste in 16,000-foot boreholes drilled into crystalline rock formations. It is one storage method the Obama administration is exploring as an alternative to the canceled geologic repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada.
The department had originally expected to break ground with Battelle Memorial Institute in September, but the company failed to secure local support at two separate sites over the course of several months earlier this year in North Dakota and South Dakota. Residents in both cases feared a successful field test would lead to actual nuclear waste in their respective states, even though the department stressed that Battelle would be using surrogate containers without any nuclear waste for the test.
Enercon Federal Services President Peter Mast provided a handout to attendees at Monday’s commission meeting, explaining that if the field test is successful, DOE would undergo a consent-based process for eliciting volunteer communities around the country willing to host an actual storage site.
“Under no circumstances will a community be mandated to host such a site against their wishes,” the handout reads.
DOE’s pre-proposal meeting in Las Vegas, Nev., last month drew more than 30 attendees, and Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz has said about a dozen companies are engaged in this round of solicitation. Ohio-based Battelle has expressed interest in submitting another bid, while Pennsylvania-based TerranearPMC, which also submitted a bid last round, confirmed with RadWaste Monitor that it would file another proposal, though the companies have not offered exact details. According to the Quay County Sun, five groups are bidding for the contract, including the Enercon team.
Founded in Tulsa, Okla. in 1983, Enercon is an engineering, environmental, and technical consulting firm. DOSECC is a Utah-based commercial geothermal, geotechnical, and mining company that began in 1984 as a consortium of about 55 universities.
The Quay County resolution states that Enercon has informed various county officials, Nara Visa community members, and others in New Mexico about the project.
“As stated in the solicitation, there will be no radioactive waste involved with this project,” the county resolution reads.
DOE has tweaked its solicitation process since walking away from failures in North Dakota and South Dakota. This round will involve multiple awards, requiring that contractors secure local support before the ultimate drilling contract is issued. Senior DOE officials have said this will allow the department a plan B if the lead contractor stumbles.
If DOE moves forward in Quay County, Enercon would require a land agreement for a 15- to 40-acre site, and approval of the site from Nara Visa, Quay County, the Logan Village Council, the Tucumcari City Council, the Logan School Board, and Mesalands Community College.
Enercon’s handout also touts the economic and educational benefits it says the project will create. The company said it will give preference to local providers for the services and equipment needed at the site, including surveying, dirtwork, fencing, and electrical work. The company also said it would hire as many as six drilling hands, though the more “senior drilling crew” is likely to come from outside the community. The handout also details a science, technology, engineering, and math program for local schools, which will involve presentations and field trips to the site.
