{"id":34615,"date":"2023-04-16T17:52:59","date_gmt":"2023-04-16T23:52:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/n-m-ready-to-defend-new-nuclear-waste-bill-against-industry-and-federal-opposition\/"},"modified":"2023-04-16T23:52:59","modified_gmt":"2023-04-16T23:52:59","slug":"n-m-ready-to-defend-new-nuclear-waste-bill-against-industry-and-federal-opposition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/n-m-ready-to-defend-new-nuclear-waste-bill-against-industry-and-federal-opposition\/","title":{"rendered":"N.M. ready to defend new nuclear waste bill against industry and federal opposition"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"An
An illustration of what the Holtec nuclear waste storage site would look like, per documents provided by the company to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. (Courtesy Nuclear Regulatory Commission)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

The future is uncertain for a privately owned high-level nuclear waste facility halfway between Hobbs and Carlsbad due to a new state law poised to go into effect June 15.<\/p>\n

Senate Bill 53 prohibits the state or other New Mexico authorities from issuing permits, contracts or leases for a disposal site for high-level nuclear waste, like the one proposed by Holtec International.<\/p>\n

The ban is lifted under two conditions.<\/p>\n

The state must approve the facility and that the federal government adopts a permanent underground storage site for nuclear waste.<\/p>\n

But not everyone is so certain. In testimony before lawmakers, lobbyists for Holtec International said that New Mexico was overreaching with the law. Federal laws trump any state laws that conflict with federal code \u2013 called \u2018preemption\u2019 in legal terms.<\/p>\n

Rikki-Lee Chavez, a lobbyist for Holtec, told the House Government, Elections and Indian Affairs committee in February that Senate Bill 53 ignored efforts by Southeastern local leaders that encouraged the facility.<\/p>\n

She argued that New Mexico \u201cseeks to circumvent the vigorous review by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission by adding requirements after Holtec has successfully completed all application steps.\u201d<\/p>\n

The questions on preemption were repeated by committee members on both sides of the aisle. Sponsors Rep. Matthew McQueen (D-Galisteo) and Sen. Jeff Steinborn (D-Las Cruces) responded that New Mexico is within its rights and authority to limit permits for constructing the facility.<\/p>\n

\"The
The shuttered Zion Nuclear Power Station sits along the shore of Lake Michigan March 11, 2009 in Zion, Illinois. The federal government estimates 86,000 metric tons of highly radioactive spent fuel is stored at 75 defunct and current nuclear power plants around the country. (Scott Olson\/Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cWe can\u2019t regulate nuclear safety, or regulations like that,\u201d McQueen told the committee. \u201cBut we can still issue building permits; we can still specify the widths of the roads and thickness of asphalt, things like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

On top of federal EPA approval, Holtec also needs licenses from the New Mexico Environment Department and New Mexico Transportation Department to operate, according to the project\u2019s Environmental Impact Statement. That report states Holtec will apply for five licenses with those state agencies.<\/p>\n

Steinborn told Source NM that the state is prepared for opposition from the nuclear industry or even federal agencies that could come out against the new law.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s great that we passed it, we created a little leverage for our state, but now we\u2019re going to have to keep fighting,\u201d Steinborn said.<\/p>\n

What is the facility? What will it do?<\/div>\n

Holtec International is a nuclear-equipment manufacturing company headquartered in Jupiter, Florida. The company plans to build a nuclear storage facility in southeastern New Mexico to store spent fuel from nuclear power plants around the country.<\/p>\n

Spent fuel contains ceramic pellets, usually made with uranium-235, inside metal rods used in electric generation at nuclear power plants. The rate of decay for radioactive wastes varies, but many of the materials can be radioactive for decades to tens of thousands of years. These hazardous materials can produce fatal radiation doses over long periods of time, or can contaminate the environment. This waste is kept on the sites of current and former nuclear power plants around the country.<\/p>\n

Despite a federal mandate, there is no permanent disposal site for high-level nuclear waste in the United States, a longstanding issue approaching its third decade.<\/p>\n

Holtec first applied for a permit for a \u201cConsolidated Interim Storage Facility\u201d in 2017 to be constructed in Southeastern New Mexico.<\/p>\n

Currently, federal regulators have not licensed the Holtec facility. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which oversees safety and permitting for nuclear facilities across the country, delayed issuing a permit for the prospective facility in southeastern New Mexico. NRC officials wrote they would consider the final decision for a license and a safety evaluation in May in a recent letter to Holtec International<\/p>\n

Holtec is working in partnership with the Eddy-Lea Energy Alliance, which owns the land. The group is made up of government officials from the cities of Carlsbad and Hobbs and Lea and Eddy counties. The alliance is a vocal supporter of the facility, saying the site offers at least 215 construction and radiation worker jobs with pay starting at $75,000.<\/p>\n

The project is years behind schedule. Initial estimates had the plant starting construction in 2020 after receiving the necessary permits and fully operational by 2023.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s the \u2018preemption\u2019 argument here?<\/div>\n

Preemption was front of mind when crafting the bill, said Doug Meiklejohn, an attorney that specializes in land and water issues at the nonprofit Conservation Voters New Mexico.<\/p>\n

\u201cFederal law is the supreme law of the land,\u201d Meiklejohn said. \u201cIf the federal government has passed a statute, and New Mexico passes a law that contradicts it, then New Mexico\u2019s statute is invalid.\u201d<\/p>\n

Much of nuclear regulation in the beginning of the Atomic age was squarely in the hands of the federal government, since it was a matter of national security and weapons manufacturing. As nuclear became a source of public power it led to court battles between states, the federal government and the nuclear industry seeking to redefine regulations.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are cases that have opened up some areas and made clear that states do retain some authority in specific areas \u2013 where it\u2019s not directly about nuclear facility design or nuclear safety,\u201d said Bruce Baizel, general counsel for the New Mexico Environment Department.<\/p>\n

Baizel and Meiklejohn advised on the bill\u2019s language.<\/p>\n

They pointed to a 2019 U.S. Supreme Court decision allowing Virginia\u2019s ban on uranium mining to stand, and declined to expand the powers of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.<\/p>\n

The key, Baizel said, is that both Holtec and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission acknowledged the state has some permitting power for constructing the facility.<\/p>\n

In terms of next steps, all eyes are on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission\u2019s decision expected in May. Then, it would be up to Holtec to apply for the necessary permits from the New Mexico Environment and Transportation Departments.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt may be that Holtec would want to go to another state where it doesn\u2019t run into this kind of opposition,\u201d Meiklejohn said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

know about \u2018preemption,\u2019 the new nuclear law and why plans for a waste facility years in the making could fall through<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":34616,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[138,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-34615","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-new-mexico","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34615","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34615"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34615\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34615"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=34615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}