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How a Louisiana appeals ruling could impact nuclear waste storage in New Mexico

That license allows for a facility to store more than 8,680 metric tons of spent fuel, even as New Mexico passed a law banning the storage of high-level nuclear waste in the state just before the license was issued. The ban will not be lifted, according to the state law, until a national repository is built, and New Mexico officials give approval for a waste facility.

Appeals court vacates Texas spent-fuel storage license that may have ripple effects, nuclear watchdogs say

SOURCE New Mexico BY: DANIELLE PROKOP – SEPTEMBER 1, 2023 

Last week, a federal appellate court in New Orleans ordered a review and reversed a federal license to operate a proposed spent-fuel facility in Andrews County, Texas, just miles across the border from Eunice, New Mexico.

In the Aug. 25 order, Fifth Circuit Judge James Ho wrote that federal law does not grant the Nuclear Regulatory Commission the authority to license private storage facilities for spent nuclear fuel away from reactors.

“The Commission has no statutory authority to issue the license,” Ho wrote. “The Atomic Energy Act doesn’t authorize the Commission to license a private, away-from-reactor storage facility for spent nuclear fuel. And issuing such a license contradicts Congressional policy expressed in the Nuclear Waste Policy Act.”

This is just the latest in a decades-long debate on what to do with the growing amount of radioactive waste from former and current power plants across the country.

Recently, Texas and New Mexico legislatures passed laws banning storage of nuclear waste – despite previous administrations welcoming the industry – and setting up for a showdown with the federal government, who has authority over the nuclear industry.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission issued a license to Florida-based company Holtec International for a proposed storage site in southeast New Mexico between Hobbs and Carlsbad.

That license allows for a facility to store more than 8,680 metric tons of spent fuel, even as New Mexico passed a law banning the storage of high-level nuclear waste in the state just before the license was issued. The ban will not be lifted, according to the state law, until a national repository is built, and New Mexico officials give approval for a waste facility………………………………………………………………………………………………………. more https://sourcenm.com/2023/09/01/waste-storage-in-new-mexico/

September 2, 2023 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Legal