The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has again pushed back the deadline for the public to comment on its draft environmental impact statement (EIS) for Holtec International’s planned spent fuel storage facility in New Mexico.
The 60-day extension now allows comments though Sept. 22. The previous deadline was July 22, which was already a 60-day extension from the original deadline of May 22.
The extensions are intended to ensure the public can provide input amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It is the NRC staff’s goal to hold in-person public meetings in New Mexico,” according to an agency statement on Friday. “The NRC staff will continue to monitor the public health emergency, and reassess these plans based on local circumstances.”
In the draft EIS issued in March, NRC staff determined Holtec’s facility in Lea County, in southeastern New Mexico, would generate limited environmental impacts. Staff preliminarily recommended approval of the license application from the New Jersey energy technology company.
Holtec in March 2017 applied to build and operate a site for underground storage of 8,680 metric tons of spent fuel from U.S. nuclear power plants. The license would be good for 40 years, but with additional NRC approvals it could be extended to 120 years and over 100,000 metric tons of the radioactive waste.
The regulator has said it expects to complete the environmental impact statement next March. The agency is expected to issue its decision on the license application shortly after the EIS is completed.
“We are assessing the impact this extension will have on the overall schedule, and will send a schedule letter to Holtec in the near future,” NRC spokesman David McIntyre said by email Monday. “That letter will be made public.”
Comments on the document can be submitted via email, to [email protected]; at regulations.gov, Docket ID NRC-2018-0052; or by mail to Office of Administration, Mail Stop: TWFN-7-A60M, ATTN: Program Management, Announcements and Editing Staff, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001.
Two webinars on the draft EIS are also scheduled, on Tuesday and on July 9. Staff will discuss their findings and take comments from callers.
