A three-member Atomic Licensing and Safety Board at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission expects in March to decide which organizations can intervene in the agency review of the license application for a planned spent nuclear fuel storage facility in New Mexico.
The board has scheduled oral arguments on the intervention petitions for Jan. 23 and possibly 24 in Albuquerque.
A corresponding prehearing session, involving the same board and many of the same would-be intervenors, will be held after the March ruling on a separate license application for fuel storage in Texas, ASLB Chairman Paul Ryerson indicated in a Jan. 10 order.
“The Board presently expects to issue a ruling on standing and contention admissibility in the New Mexico case in March, and believes oral argument in this case will be more productive if the participants have an opportunity to consider the Board’s ruling in the New Mexico proceeding” Ryerson wrote. “Accordingly, the Board intends to issue an order providing further guidance concerning oral argument in this proceeding around the time it issues its decision in the New Mexico proceeding.”
Holtec International, an energy technology firm based in New Jersey, in 2017 filed the application for a 40-year license to build and operate a facility for underground storage of up to 173,000 metric tons of used fuel from commercial nuclear reactors. It hopes to open the site by 2022.
Organizations that have filed to intervene in opposition to the project are the Sierra Club; Beyond Nuclear the Alliance for Environmental Strategies; NAC International; regional energy concerns Fasken Land and Minerals and Permian Basin Land and Royalty Owners; and a coalition of groups headed by Don’t Waste Michigan. Counsel for all those petitioners will make oral arguments next week before the board, along with representatives for Holtec and the NRC staff.
Comments will also be accepted from the Eddy-Lea Energy Alliance, which is partnering with Holtec on the project, and its constituent members: the cities of Carlsbad and Hobbs and Lea and Eddy counties. All five of those entities have requested to participate in the licensing proceeding as interested local government bodies.
