Holtec Backs Down, Reveals Achilles’ Heel For U.S. Nuclear Resurgence

Forbes, ByIan Dexter Palmer, Ph.D, 14 Oct, 2025

Highlights.

Holtec International has shuttered their plans to store nuclear waste in the Permian basin of south-east New Mexico.
President Trump, by executive order, has decided nuclear energy will be a big part of the U.S. energy future.
Next-gen nuclear reactors, SMRs, have been spotlighted by the Secretary of Energy to help solve the electrical power surge needed for data centers and AI.
But research has shown that SMRs create 2 to 30 times greater volumes of nuclear waste.
The cost of new nuclear reactors, whether traditional reactors or SMRs, is substantially higher than renewable energies.
Oklo is a front-runner in the SMR race, and its stock has skyrocketed. In August, it was selected for three projects under DOE’s Reactor Pilot Program.

Holtec International has shuttered their plans to store nuclear waste in the Permian basin of south-east New Mexico. The planned site would have contained 50 canisters of spent nuclear fuel for 40 years, as a temporary storage site, which is laughable as Holtec planned to scale up to 10,000 canisters eventually.

President Trump, by executive order, has decided nuclear energy will be a big part of the U.S. energy future. After languishing for decades, President Biden assigned substantial funds to nuclear, as part of his push toward carbon-free sources. But there is an Achilles’ heel to nuclear—the waste is radioactive, and has to be disposed of very carefully. This is not just waste from traditional nuclear reactors, like Three-Mile Island, but also from small nuclear reactors (SMRs), that can be as small as a three-story building, and which can be made in a factory, and stacked to scale up energy supply. There is an ubiquitous threat in the U.S., real or perceived, of being exposed to nuclear radiation, either from nuclear accidents or from storage of nuclear waste.

Holtec Project Canceled.

In 2023, the governor of NM, Michelle Lujan Grisham, signed a state bill into law that banned state agencies from signing nuclear storage permits. There are reasons for this. NM has a history of debilitating health effects from nuclear radiation, from the first atom bomb explosion south of Albuquerque, to workers who mined uranium in western parts of the state.

But there are other liabilities. A second is earthquakes in the Permian basin induced by injection of waste water from oil well operations. These are increasing in numbers and there have been several magnitude 5 quakes. Planning to build a storage facility for nuclear waster in the middle of hundreds of oil wells and their earthquakes should be a no-brainer.

A third liability is the promise the Holtec facility would be temporary, until the U.S. finds a permanent site. ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. https://www.forbes.com/sites/ianpalmer/2025/10/14/holtec-backs-down-reveals-achilles-heel-for-us-nuclear-resurgence/