Staff at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Tuesday preliminarily recommended licensing a facility in New Mexico for temporary storage of spent fuel from U.S. nuclear power plants.
The tentative support is provided in the draft environmental impact statement (EIS) for Holtec International’s planned consolidated interim storage facility (CISF) in Lea County, in the state’s southeast.
“Based on its environmental review, the preliminary NRC staff recommendation is issuance of a license to Holtec authorizing the initial phase of the project, unless safety issues mandate otherwise,” the 488-page document says.
The finding was based on Holtec’s environmental report for the project; NRC staff consultation with agencies at the federal, state, tribal, and local levels; the agency’s own environmental evaluation; and input from the public on the scope of the review.
The NRC report evaluates potential effects in a number of environmental areas, including land use, geology and soils, surface waters and wetlands, groundwater, ecological resources, and air quality. In each area, staff evaluated the impact from the construction, operations, and decommissioning and land reclamation phases of the project.
In nearly all cases, the impacts were determined to be small, with a handful of cases in which the impacts were cited as small to moderate. Under NRC regulations, a small impact generates environmental effects that are undetectable or nearly so. Moderate impacts can produce noticeable alterations to the environment, without destabilizing it.
“Cumulative impacts from past, present, and reasonably foreseeable future actions were considered and evaluated in this EIS, regardless of what agency (Federal or non-Federal) or person undertook the action,” according to the document. “The NRC staff determined that the SMALL to MODERATE impacts … from the proposed project would contribute SMALL to MODERATE impacts to the SMALL to MODERATE cumulative impacts that exist in the area due primarily to oil and gas exploration activities, nuclear facilities, and potential wind and solar energy projects.”
“The NRC’s draft EIS validates our technical position that our proposed subterranean fuel storage facility entails no adverse consequences to the environment or to other enterprises such as oil and gas, ranching and farming operating in the area,” Holtec President and CEO Kris Singh said in a press release Wednesday.
Holtec, an energy technology company headquartered in Camden. N.J., in March 2017 applied for a 40-year federal license to build and operate its facility on over 1,000 acres. The initial license would cover 8,680 metric tons of spent fuel in 500 canisters, to be stored just-underground within layers of steel and concrete. Eventually capacity could be expanded to more than 173,000 metric tons in 10,000 canisters for up to 120 years.
While the eventual expansion is not part of the current licensing, staff did consider that outcome in developing the EIS.
The Holtec facility, along with a 40,000-metric-ton capacity facility nearby in West Texas, could support the Department of Energy in meeting its legal mandate to deal with the nation’s nuclear waste. The 1982 Nuclear Waste Policy Act gave the agency until Jan. 31, 1998, to begin disposal of used fuel from power plants and high-level waste from defense nuclear operations.
The 2008 DOE license application with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for a geologic repository under Yucca Mountain, Nev., has been moribund for a decade after the Obama administration defunded the proceeding. After three unsuccessful attempts to persuade Congress to appropriate funds to resume licensing of Yucca Mountain, the Trump administration has requested $27.5 million for fiscal 2021 to stand up a “robust” program for interim storage.
Public input will be taken over 60 days on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission EIS, though details on the comment period had not been released at deadline for RadWaste Monitor. Multiple public meetings are planned as well in New Mexico.
The final EIS is scheduled to be issued next March. A separate safety evaluation report is also due that month, after which the agency will rule on the license application.
Holtec is partnering on the project with the Eddy-Lea Energy Alliance (ELEA), a coalition of local governments that provided the land for the facility. ELEA has emphasized the job creation and other economic benefits that would be generated by the operation.
“The NRC is a very strong and technical regulator, and the board is excited for Holtec in accomplishing this major step in the licensing process,” ELEA Chair John Heaton said in the company press release. “Holtec’s diligence and commitment to this much needed project has made them an extraordinary partner, and the NRC’s environmental report reaffirms that the HI-STORE CISF will have a positive economic impact on our area’s economy bringing several hundred jobs and economic growth.”
The Holtec project has faced pushback from parties including local oil and gas concerns, environmental and anti-nuclear groups, and the administration of New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D). Among their concerns are the potential for damage to the state’s crucial agriculture and energy industries and possible accidents in transport of the material.
Grisham’s office did not respond to a request for comment on the NRC finding.
Agency staff did not evaluate potential environmental impacts past the initial 40-year license or what might happen if future oil and gas drilling operations are conducted closer to the CISF, Don Hancock, nuclear waste safety director for the nongovernmenta Southwest Research and Information Center, told the Carlsbad Current-Argus.
“Everyone knows if the waste goes to Holtec, it will stay there for longer. The waste could be there forever. The NRC is admitting they are not looking at the relevant environmental impacts,” according to Hancock.
The New Mexico Environment Department, a cooperating agency in development of the EIS, in December cited a long list of “shortcomings” in the then-working draft of the document. They included the statement’s characterization of groundwater in the area, the evaluation of potential pathways for site contamination into groundwater, surface water safeguards, and extending surveillance of environmental effects.
The state agency “will conduct a careful review of how our December comments have been addressed by NRC,” spokeswoman Maddy Hayden said by email. “Based on our review, NMED will may provide additional comments to the NRC during the public comment period on the draft EIS.”
