Public Comment Period for New Mexico Holtec Site Ends Today
The public comment period on Holtec International’s application to build an interim storage facility for spent radioactive waste in southeastern New Mexico will close at the end of the day, despite pleas from critics to wait until the end of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Originally scheduled to close in March, the deadline has already been pushed back twice in response to the pandemic. In the meantime, thousands of members of the public have made comments in opposition to the company’s application to establish a desert waystation to temporarily consolidate spent nuclear fuel from powerplants across in the country.
Critics say that along with harming vulnerable nearby communities environmentally, the project violates the principle of “consent-based siting” because New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and a number of other city and county leaders have issued statements in opposition to it. They say it will harm significant Native American cultural sites and that the transportation of the fuel presents danger to others on the road.
The New Jersey-based company’s application includes plans to store up to 8,680 metric tons of uranium in commercial used fuel — around 500 canisters with the potential to expand to up to 10,000 — until Congress approves funding for a permanent site, such as Yucca Mountain.
Kris Singh, Holtec’s president and chief executive officer, opposed the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s second extension of the comment period in June, arguing it was “unlikely to yield any enlightening input to the discourse on environmental impact.”
