Radioactive Waste 163 - The Cities Of Carlsbad and Hobbs in New Mexico Are Working On A New Spent Nuclear Fuel Storage Facility
The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant is located near Carlsbad, New Mexico. There was a serious accident there in February of 2014 during which a drum of nuclear waste from the U.S. nuclear weapons program burst and particles of plutonium and americium escaped through the waste facility's ventilation system and were detect twenty miles away in Carlsbad. Investigation has shown that there are at least sixty more barrels of waste that might explode due to using the wrong material to solidify the waste. The storage rooms in the underground waste dump were supposed to be closed off with massive steel and concrete doors when they were full but this practice was abandoned and this contributed to the release of the radioactive materials. It may be several years and it will be millions of dollars before the WIPP is able to accept more nuclear weapons waste which is piling up in temporary storage facilities.
A resolution (referred to in N.M. as a memorial) was just presented to the Environmental and Natural Resource Committee of the New Mexico legislature which supported the construction of an interim facility for storing spent nuclear fuel assemblies. The resolution will also be presented to the New Mexico House of Representative in a few days. The resolution states that it "endorses and supports the efforts of the Eddy-Lea Energy Alliance… to temporarily store the spent nuclear fuel generated by America’s nuclear power plants."
The Eddy-Lea Energy Alliance (ELEA) is a company that is owned by the N.M. Eddy and Lea counties along with the cities of Carlsbad and Hobbs. ELEA signed a memorandum of agreement with Holtec International in April of 2015 to " to establish a facility to store commercial used nuclear fuel until a geologic repository for permanent disposal becomes available."
The resolution also says that "the alliance site is ideal for a consolidated interim storage facility because of the technical criteria of the site." The location for the facility is between Carlsbad and Hobbs. It is more than thirty five miles away from any population. There is no air traffic over the proposed site. Due to the nearby WIPP and other facilities, there is a scientific nuclear workforce already in the area. The resolution points out there will be one hundred and fifty well paying jobs at the facility as well as two hundred more jobs in the area related to the operation of the facility. Construction of the facility will require over a billion dollars of capital investment in southeast New Mexico.
With spent nuclear fuel piling up at nuclear power plants around the U.S., the facility would be a temporary solution to the problem of storing spent nuclear fuel. If the N.M. House votes to pass the resolution that would mean that the N.M. state government approves of the project. This would be viewed as a positive step in the permitting process for the new facility.
New Mexico State Rep. Cathrynn Brown said that she is hoping for a favorable vote on the resolution which is a way for the New Mexico legislature to express their support for the project. She said that " A lot more has to be done before we see the facility constructed. It’s still in the early stages of development." The licensing of the facility with the NRC will take at least three years.
John Heaton is the chair of the Mayor's Nuclear Task Force for the city of Carlsbad, N.M. He said that the ELEA project has been under discussion for four years. He went on to say that passing the resolution in the N.M. House would be " a very positive thing to happen." The resolution lays out the intent of the facility and what it would mean for N.M.
I wonder how much support there is for the project in the general population in Carlsbad and Hobbs. Considering that they have already been subjected to incompetence at a nearby nuclear facility that released radioactive particles into the air they breathe, they may not be as excited about the project as the ELEA and its supporters.
